The seven books of Arnobuis Adversus gentes

ANTE-NICENE
CHRISTIAN LIBRARY:

TRANSLATIONS OF
THE WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS

DOWN TO A.D. 325.

EDITED BY THE

REV. ALEXANDER ROBERTS, D.D.

AND

JAMES DONALDSON, LL.D.

VOL. XIX.

THE SEVEN BOOKS OF AKNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES,

EDINBURGH:
T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET.

1895.

PRINTED BY MORRISON AND OIBB,

T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH.

LONDON : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND CO. LIMITED

NEW YORK : CHARLES 8CRIBXER S SONS.
TORONTO : THE WILLARD TRACT DEPOSITORV.

THE SEVEN BOOKS

c?

ARNOBIDS ADYERSUS GENTES,

br»
ARCIP HAMILTON BRYCE, LL.D. D.C.L.

AND

HUGH CAMPBELL, M.A.

EDINBURGH:
T. & T. CLAHK, 38, GEOEGE STEEET.

1895.

BT
1130

CONTENTS.

PACB

PREFACE, .... . . . vii

INTRODUCTION, ....... ix

§ 1. Account of Arnobius given by Jerome, . . . ix

§ 2. Facts derived from Arnobius himself, . . . x

§ 3. Result, xii

§ 4. His Work : its Style and Character, . . . xiv
§ 5. Knowledge of Scriptures, and References to other Writ-
ings, ....... xv

§ 6. MS. and Editions of the Seven Books ailrersus Gentes, . xvii

§ 7. Title, xviii

BOOK I., ...... .1

H., 58

HI., • . 148

IV., ... . 183

V., . . 221

VI., . . . . . . . .269

VII., . . 304

APPENDIX, .... . 365

INDEX OF AUTHORS QUOTED, . . . . .369

INDEX OF SUBJECTS, . . . . . . . 370

PREFACE.

I HE translation of Arnobius was begun in the
hope that it would be possible to adhere through-
out to the text of Orelli, and that very little
attention to the various readings would be found neces-
sary. This was, however, found to be impossible, not
merely because Hildebrand's collation of the Paris MS.
showed how frequently liberties had been taken with the
text, but on account of the corrupt state of the text itself.

It has therefore been thought advisable to lay before the
reader a close translation founded on the MS., so far as
known. A conjectural reading has in no case been adopted
without notice.

Throughout the Work use has been made of four editions,
— Oehler's, Orelli's, Hildebrand's, and that of Leyden ;
other editions being consulted only for special reasons.

It is to be regretted that our knowledge of the single
MS. of Arnobius is still incomplete ; but it is hoped that
this will soon be remedied, by the publication of a revised
text, based upon a fresh collation of the MS., with a com-
plete apparatus and a carefully digested body of notes.

INTRODUCTION.

JIRNOBIUS has been most unjustly neglected
in modern times ; but some excuse for this
may be found in the fact that even less
attention seems to have been paid to him in
the ages immediately succeeding his own. We find no men-
tion of him in any author except Jerome ; and even Jerome
has left only a few lines about him, which convey very little
information.

In his list of ecclesiastical writers he says,1 " During the
reign of Diocletian, Arnobius taught rhetoric with the great-
est success, at Sicca, in Africa, and wrote against the heathen
the books extant ;" and again speaks of this work more par-
ticularly when he says,2 " Arnobius published seven books
against the heathen." In his Chronicon, however, he writes
under the year 2342 (i.e. A.D. 326), " Arnobius is considered
a distinguished rhetorician in Africa, who, while engaged at
Sicca in teaching young men rhetoric, was led by visions to
the faith ; and not being received by the bishop as hitherto
a persistent enemy to Christ, composed very excellent books
against his former belief." It must at once be seen that there
is here a mistake, for Arnobius is put some twenty-three
years later than in the former passage. Jerome himself
shows us that the former date is the one he meant, for else-
where3 he speaks of Lactantius as the disciple of Arnobius.
Lactantius, in extreme old age,4 was appointed tutor of Con-

1 Cat. Script. Eccl. Ixxix. f. 121, Bened. ed. toin. iv.

2 Ep. Ixxxiii. f. 656.

8 Cat. Script. Eccl. Ixxx. f. 121, ep. Ixxxiii.
* Cat. Script. Eccl. Ixxx.

x INTRODUCTION.

stantine's son Crispus; and this, we are told in the Chronicon,1
was in the year 317. No one will suppose that if the dis-
ciple was a very old man in 317, his master could have been
in his prime in 326. It is certain, therefore, that this date
is not correct ; and it seems very probable that Oehler's con-
jecture is true, who supposes that Jerome accidentally trans-
posed his words from the year 303 to the place where we
find them, misled by noticing the vicenalia of Constantino
when he was looking for those of Diocletian.

It is with some difficulty that we can believe that Arnobius
was led to embrace Christianity by dreams, as he speaks of
these with little respect as " vain," — which he could hardly
have done if by them the whole course of his life had been
changed; but in our utter ignorance we cannot say that this
may not have been to some extent the case. The further
statement, that his apology for Christianity was submitted
as a proof of his sincerity to the bishop of Sicca, is even less
credible, — for these two reasons, that it is evidently the fruit
not of a few weeks' but of protracted labour, and that it is
hardly likely that any bishop would have allowed some parts
of it to pass into circulation. It is just possible that the first
or third books may have been so presented ; but it is not
credible that any pledge would be required of a man seek-
ing to cast in his lot with the persecuted and terrified Church
referred to in the fourth.

§ 2. If we learn but little from external sources as to the
life of Arnobius, we are not more fortunate when we turn
to his own writings. One or two facts, however, are made
clear ; and these are of some importance. " But lately," he
says, " O blindness, I worshipped images just brought from
the furnaces, gods made on anvils and forged with hammers :
now, led by so great a teacher into the ways of truth, I know
what all these things are." 2 We have thus his own assur-
ance of his conversion from heathenism. He speaks of him-
self, however, as actually a Christian, — not as a waverer, not
as one purposing to forsake the ancient superstitious and
1 Anno 2333. 2 i. 39, p. 31.

INTRODUCTION. xi

embrace the new religion, but as a firm believer, whose
faith is already established, and whose side has been taken
and stedfastly maintained. In a word, he refers to himself
as once lost in error, but now a true Christian.

Again, in different passages he marks pretty accurately
the time or times at which he wrote. Thus, in the first
book l he speaks of about three hundred years as the time
during which Christianity had existed ; and in the second,'2
of a thousand and fifty, or not many less, having elapsed
since the foundation of Home. There has been much dis-
cussion as to what era is here referred to ; and it has been
pretty generally assumed that the Fabian must be intended,
— in which case 303 would be the year meant. If it is ob-
served, however, that Arnobius shows an intimate acquaint-
ance with Varro, and great admiration for him, it will pro-
bably be admitted that it is most likely that the Varronian,
or common, era was adopted by him ; and in this case the
year referred to will be 297 A.D. This coincides sufficiently
with the passage in the first book, and is in harmony with
the idea which is there predominant, — the thought, that is,
of the accusation so frequently on the lips of the heathen,
that Christianity was the cause of the many and terrible
afflictions with which the empire was visited. These accusa-
tions, ever becoming more bitter and threatening, would
naturally be observed with care and attention by thoughtful
Christians towards the close of the third century ; and
accordingly we find that the words with which Arnobius
begins his apology, express the feeling of awakening anxiety
with which he viewed the growth of this fear and hatred
in the minds of the heathen. He declares, in effect, that
one great object — indeed the main object — which he had
proposed to himself, was to show that it was not because of
the Christians that fresh evils and terrible calamities were
continually assailing the state. And it must be remembered
that we cannot refer such a proposal to a later period than
that assigned. It would certainly net have occurred to a
Christian in the midst of persecution, with death overhang-
1 i. 13, p. 13. 2 ii. 71, p. 111.

xii INTRODUCTION.

ing him, and danger on every side, to come forward and
attempt calmly to show the heathen that there was no reason
for their complaints against the Christians. In the later
books there is a change in tone, upon which we cannot
now dwell, although it is marked. In one passage he asks
indignantly,1 " Why should our writings be given to the
flames, our meetings be cruelly broken up, in which prayer is
offered to the supreme God, peace and pardon are asked for
all in authority, for soldiers, kings, friends, enemies?" In
the calm tranquillity of the last half of the third century
these words could hardly have been written, but they are a
striking testimony to the terms of the imperial edict issued
in the year 303 A.D. So, too, the expression of anger and
disgust at the anti-pagan character of some of Cicero's
works, noticed in iii. 7, belongs to the incipient stages of
persecution.

Nor must it be supposed that the whole work may be
referred to the era which ensued after the abdication of
Diocletian, in 305. From this time an apology for Chris-
tianity with such a design would have been an anachronism,
for it was no longer necessary to disarm the fears of the
heathen by showing that the gods could not be enraged at
the Christians. It has further to be noticed, that although
it is perfectly clear that Arnobius spent much time on his
apology, it has never been thoroughly revised, and does not
seem to have been ever finished.2

We surely have in all this sufficient reason to assign the
composition of these books adversus Gentes to the end of the
third and beginning of the fourth centuries. Beyond this we
cannot go, for we have no data from which to derive further
inferences.

§ 3. We have seen that the facts transmitted to us are
very few and scanty indeed ; but, few as they are, they sug-
gest an interesting picture. Arnobius comes before us in
Sicca; we are made spectators of two scenes of his life there,
and the rest — the beginning and the end — are shrouded in
1 iv. 36, p. 218. 2 Cf> pp- 347> Di 3j and 364> n g>

INTRODUCTION. xiii

darkness. Sicca Veneria was an important town, lying on
the Numiclian border, to the south-west of Carthage. As its
name signifies, it was a seat of that vile worship of the
goddess of lust, which was dear to the Phoenician race. The
same cultus was found there which disgraced Corinth ; and
in the temple of the goddess the maidens of the town were
wont to procure for themselves, by the sacrifice of their
chastity, the dowries which the poverty of their parents
could not provide.

In the midst of traditions of such bestial foulness Arno-
bius found himself, — whether as a native, or as one who had
been led to settle there. He has told us himself how true
an idolater he was, how thoroughly he complied with the
ceremonial demands of superstition ; but the frequency and
the vehemence of language with which his abhorrence of the
sensuality of heathenism is expressed, tell us as plainly that
practices so horrible had much to do in preparing his mind
to receive another faith.

In strong contrast to the filthy indulgences with which
paganism gratified its adherents, must have appeared the
strict purity of life which was enjoined by Christianity and
aimed at by its followers ; and perhaps it was in such a place
as Sicca that considerations of this nature would have most
influence. There, too, the story of Cyprian's martyrdom
must have been well known, — may indeed have been told in
the nursery of the young Arnobius, — and many traditions
must have been handed down about the persistency with
which those of the new religion had held fast their faith, in
spite of exile, torture, and death. However distorted such
tales might be, there would always remain in them the evi-
dence of so exalted nobility of spirit, that every disclosure
of the meanness and baseness of the old superstition must
have induced an uneasy feeling as to whether that could be
impiety which ennobled men, — that piety which degraded
them lower than the brutes.

For some time all went well with Arnobius. He was not
too pure for the world, and his learning and eloquence won
him fame and success in his profession. But in some way,

xiv INTRODUCTION.

we know not how, a higher learning was communicated to
him, and the admired rhetorician became first a suspected,
then a persecuted Christian. He has left us in no doubt as
to the reason of the change. Upon his darkness, he says,
there shone out a heavenly light, a great teacher appeared to
him and pointed out the way of truth ; and he who had been
an earnest worshipper of images, of stones, of unknown gods,
was now as earnest, as zealous in his service of the true God.
Of the trials which he must have endured we know nothing.
A terrible persecution swept over the world, and many a
Christian perished in it. Such a man as Arnobius must
have been among the first to be assailed, but we hear of him
no more. With his learning and talents he could not have
failed to make himself a name in the church, or outside its
pale, if he had lived. The conclusion seems inevitable, that
he was one of the victims of that last fiery trial to which
Christians under the Roman empire were exposed.

§ 4. The vast range of learning shown in this apology has
been admitted on all sides. Even Jerome says that it should
at times be read on account of the learning displayed in it.1
In another passage Jerome says,2 " Arnobius is unequal and
prolix, confused from want of arrangement." This may be
admitted to a certain extent ; but although such defects are
to be found in his work, they are certainly not character-
istic of Arnobius. So, too, many passages may be found
strangely involved and mystical, and it is at times hard to
understand what is really meant. Solecisms and barbarisms
are also met with, as Nourry has objected, so that it cannot
be said that Arnobius writes pure Latin. Still we must not
be misled into supposing that by enumerating these defects
we have a fair idea of his style.

If we remember that no man can wholly escape the influ-
ences of his age, and that Arnobius was so warm an admirer
of Varro and Lucretius that he imitated their style and
adopted their vocabulary, we shall be able to understand in
what way he may be fairly spoken of as a good writer,
1 Ep. Ixii. ad Tranquill. 2 Ep. xlix. ad Paulimtm.

INTRODUCTION. xv

although not free from defects. His style is, in point of
fact, clear and lucid, rising at times into genuine eloquence ;
and its obscurity and harshness are generally caused by an
attempt to express a vague and indefinite idea. Indeed
very considerable power of expression is manifested in the
philosophical reasonings of the second book, the keen satire
of the fourth and fifth, and the vigorous argument of the
sixth and seventh.

Jerome's last stricture is scarcely applicable. Arnobius
wrote adversus Gentes ; he addressed himself to meet the
taunts and accusations of the heathen, and in so doing he
retorts upon them the charges which they preferred against
the Christians. His work must therefore be criticised from
this standpoint, not as a systematic exposition or vindication
of Christianity. Christianity is indeed defended, but it is
by attacking heathenism. We must consider, also, that evi-
dently the work was not revised as a whole, and that the last
book would have been considerably altered had Arnobius
lived or found opportunity to correct it.1 If we remember
these things, we shall find little to object to in the arrange-
ment.

After making all deductions, it may be said fairly that in
Arnobius the African church found no unfitting champion.
Living amidst impurity and corruption, and seeing on every
side the effects of a superstitious and sensual faith, he stands
forward to proclaim that man has a nobler ideal set before
him than the worship of the foul imaginations of his de-
praved fancy, to call his fellows to a purer life, and to point
out that the Leader who claims that men should follow Him
is both worthy and able to guide. This he does with enthu-
siasm, vigour, and effect ; and in doing this he accomplishes
his end.

§ 5. Various opinions have been entertained as to the posi-
tion which Arnobius occupied with regard to the Bible. We
cannot here enter into a discussion of these, and shall merely
present a brief statement of facts.

1 Cf. pp. 347, n. 3, and 364, n. 3, with the Appendix.

xvi INTRODUCTION.

It is evident that with regard to the Jews and the Old
Testament Arnobius was in a state of perfect ignorance ; for
he confounds the Sadducees with the Pharisees,1 makes no
allusion to the history of the Israelites, and shows that he
was not acquainted with their forms of sacrifice.2

He was evidently well acquainted with the life of Christ
and the history of the church, and alludes at times to well-
known Christian sayings ; but how far in so doing he
quotes the Gospels and Epistles, is not easily determined.
Thus it has been supposed, and with some probability, that
in referring to the miracles of Christ he must allude to the
Gospels as recording them. But it must be observed that he
ascribes to Christ a miracle of which the New Testament
makes no mention, — of being understood by men of different
nations, as though He spoke in several languages at the same
moment.3 So, too, his account4 of the passion differs from
that of the New Testament. On the other hand, we find
that he speaks of Christ as having taught men " not to
return evil for evil," 5 as " the way of salvation, the door of
life, by whom alone there is access to the light," 6 and as
having been seen by " countless numbers of men " after His
resurrection.7 Still further, he makes frequent references
to accounts of Christ written by the apostles and handed
down to their followers,8 and asks why their writings should
be burned.9 In one place,10 also, he asks, " Have the well-
known words never rung in your ears, that the wisdom of
man is foolishness with God?" where the reference seems to
be very distinct ;n but he nowhere says that he is quoting, or
mentions any books.

This is, however, less remarkable when we take into
account his mode of dealing with Clemens Alexandrinus and

1 P. 158, n. 2. 2 Cf. B. vii., on sacrifices generally.

3 P. 37, n. 2. 4 P. 45, n. 1.

5 P. 9, n. 1. « P. 135, n. 6.

7 P. 37 ; cf. 1 Cor. xv. 6.

8 i. 55, p. 45 ; 56, p. 46 ; 58, p. 47 ; 59, p. 48.

9 iv. 36, p. 218. 10 ii. 6, p. 68, n. 5.
11 Cf. 1 Cor. iii. 19.

INTRODUCTION. xvii

Cicero. The fourth, fifth, and sixth books are based on these
two authors, and from Clement, in particular, whole sentences
are taken unchanged. Yet the only reference made to either
is the very general allusion in the third and fourth books.1

On the other hand, he quotes frequently and refers dis-
tinctly to many authors, and is especially careful to show
that he has good authority for his statements, as will be seen
by observing the number of books to which he refers on the
mysteries and temples. If we bear this in mind, the prin-
ciple which guided him seems to have been, mat when he
has occasion to quote an author once or twice, he does so
by name, but that he takes it for granted that every one
knows what are the great sources of information, and that
it is therefore unnecessary to specify in each case what is
the particular authority.

There are many interesting questions connected with this
subject, but these we must for the present leave untouched.

§ 6. No other works by Arnobius have been preserved,
and only two MSS. are known to exist. Of these, the one
in Brussels is merely a transcript of that preserved in the
public library at Paris, on which all editions have been
based. This is a MS. of the ninth or tenth century, and
contains the Octavius of Minucius Felix immediately after
the seventh book adcersus Gentes, in consequence of which
that treatise was at first printed as the eighth book of
Arnobius. Although it has been collated several times, we
are still in doubt as to its true readings, — Hildebrand, who
last examined it, having done so with too little care.

The first 2 edition was printed at Rome in 1542, and
was followed by that of Gelenius,3 in which much was
done for the emendation of the text; but arbitrary con-
jectures were too frequently admitted. Next in order
follow those of Canterus,4 who did especial service by

1 Pp. 154 and 195, n. 3.

2 Arnobii Disputationum adversus Gentes, libri octo, nunc pritnum in
lucem editi Romse, apud Franc. Prisciauum Florentirmm.

3 Basilcse 1546. « Autverpiaj 1582.
ARNOB. b

xviii INTRODUCTION.

pointing out what use Arnobius has made of Clement,
Ursinus,1 Elmenhorst,2 Stewechius,3 Heraldus,4 and the
Leyden 5 variorum edition, based on a recension of the text
by Salmasius.6 The later editions are those of Oberthur,7
whose text is adopted by Orelli,8 Hildebrand,9 and Oehler.10
Oberthur's edition is of little importance, and that of Orelli
is valuable solely as a collection of notes gathered from many
sources into a crude and undigested mass. Hildebrand
seems to have taken too little pains with his work ; and
Oehler, whose critical sagacity and industry might have
given us a most satisfactory edition, was unfortunately ham-
pered by want of space,

No edition of Arnobius has been published in England ;
and the one Englishman who has taken any pains with this
author seerns to be John Jones, who, under the pseudonym
of Leander de St. Martino, prepared summaries, which
were added to a reprint of Stewechius at Douay 1G34. As
this edition has not come into our hands, we are unable to
speak of it more particularly.

§ 7. It will be observed that adverms Gentcs is the title of
this work in all editions except those of Hildebrand and
Oehler, in which it is <xdversm Nationes. The difference is
very slight, but it may be well to men.tion that neither can
be said with certainty to be correct. The first is the form
used by Jerome in two passages of his writings ;u and as he

1 Ronree 1583, This is the second Roman €d., and restores the
Octavius to Minucius Felix.

2 Hanovise 1603 ; dedicated to Joseph Scaliger. 3 Antwerpise 1604.

4 Paris 1605. This edition, which is of great value, and shows great
learning and ability, was completed ia two months, as Heraldus him-
self teils us.

5 Lugduni Batavoram 1C51, containing the notes of Canterus,
Elmenhorst, Stewechius, and Heraldus.

6 Salmasius purposed writing commentaries for this edition, but died
without doing more than beginning them.

1 Wirceburgi 1783, 8vo, preceded by a rambling introductory epistle.
8 Lipsise 1816-17, 8vo. » Halis Saxonum 1844, 8vo.

J0 Lipsise 1846, 8vo. " Cf. § 1, notes 1 and 2.

INTRODUCTION. xix

must have seen earlier MSS. than that now extant, he is
supposed to give the title which he found in them. In
the Paris MS., however, at the end of the second book, the
subscription is, " The second book of Arnobius adcersus
Nationes ends ;" and it has been argued that, as the copyist
would hardly have gone so far astray, while it is quite pos-
sible that Jerome did not attempt to do more than indicate
generally the purpose of the book without quoting its title-
page, this must be the true title. The first page of the
existing MS. is torn away, and the question remains there-
fore undecided : fortunately its decision is not of the slightest
importance.

ERRATA.

Page 7, n. 1, for Hist. Nat. xx. 24, read ii. 38.
28, 1. 5, for Opis, read Ops.
141, 1. 24, for 1500, readWSQ.
173, n. 2, /or i. 7, raid i. 5.

THE SEVEN BOOKS OF

ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES.

BOOK I.

ARGUMENT.

THE enemies of Christianity were wont to say that, since its appearance
on earth, the gods had shown their hatred of it by sending upon men all
manner of calamities, and that, owing to the neglect of sacred rites, the
divine care no longer guarded the world. Arnobius begins by showing
how baseless this opinion is (1), for the laws and course of nature re-
main unchanged (2) ; and though the heathen said that since Chris-
tianity came into the world there had been wars, famines, pestilences,
and many other similar calamities, these were not new evils, for history
tells of terrible misery and destruction resulting from such causes in
past ages (3-5) ; while it should also be noticed, that through the gentle
and peaceful spirit of Christianity, the world is already relieved in part,
aud that war would be unknown, and men live peacefully together, if it
prevailed universally (6). If asked, "What are, then, the causes of human
misery ? Arnobius answers that this is no part of his subject (7), but
suggests that all evil results necessarily from the very nature of things,
— is, indeed, perhaps not evil at all, but, however opposed to the plea-
sures or even interests of individuals, tends to general good (8-11) ; and
that it is therefore somewhat presumptuous in man, a creature so igno-
rant of himself, to seek to impose conditions on the superior powers (12).
He further shows the futility of blaming the Christians for all these ills,
by reminding his opponents that there had been no unvarying series of
calamities since Christianity came to earth, but that success had counter-
balanced defeat, and abundance scarcity; so that arguments such as these
would prove that the gods were angry at times, at times forgot their
anger (13-16). But, Arnobius asks, if the gods can be enraged, does
not this argue mortality and imperfection in them (17, 18), and even
injustice (19), or weakness, if they need the aid of men in punishing their
ARNOB. A

2 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boon i.

enemies (20) ? As, however, all alike suffer, it is absurd to say that
Christians are specially aimed at; and, indeed, this is a cry raised by those
interested in upholding the superstitious rites of antiquity (21-24). But
assuming that the gods could be enraged, why should they be angry at
Christians more than others? Because, the heathen said, Christianity
introduced new and impious forms of religion. In reply to this, Arnobius
points out that Christians are nothing but worshippers of the supreme
God, under Christ's teaching and guidance (25-27) ; and shows how ab-
surd it is to accuse those of impiety who worship the Creator and supreme
Euler, while those who serve the lesser gods — even foul and loathsome

deities are called religious (28-30) ; and then turns to God Himself,

beseeching pardon for these ignorant worshippers of His creatures, who
had neglected Himself (31). He merely notices but refuses to discuss
the position of those who deny that God exists, holding it impious even
to reason about this, as though it were questionable, while there is an
instinctive belief and reverence implanted in our breasts (31-33). But,
his opponents said, we worship Jupiter as the supreme God. Jupiter,
however, Arnobius points out, cannot claim this rank, for he is ad-
mittedly not self -existent (34) ; or if, as some said, Jupiter is only
another name for the Supreme Being, then, as all alike worship Him,
all must be regarded by Hun alike (35). But, his opponents urged,
you are guilty not in worshipping God, but in worshipping a mere man
who died on the cross ; to which Arnobius replies, in the first place, by
retorting the charge as bearing much more forcibly on the heathen them-
selves (36, 37) ; and then argues that Christ has sufficiently vindicated
his claims to divinity by leading the blind and erring and lost into the
ways of truth and salvation, and by his revelation of things previously
unknown (38, 39) ; while, again, his death on the cross does not affect
his teaching and miracles, any more than the loss of life deprived of
fame Pythagoras, Socrates, Aquilius, Trebonius, or Eegulus (40), and
contrasts favourably with the stories told about Bacchus, ^Esculapius,
Hercules, Attis, and Romulus (41) ; and, finally, asserts Christ's divinity
as proved by his miracles (42), which are compared with those of the
Magi both as to their end and the manner in which they were wrought
(43, 44) ; and the chief features of the miracles of his life on earth and
his resurrection, of the power of his name, and the spread of his church
are summarily noticed (45-47). Arnobius next remarks that the heathen
did not even pretend that their gods had healed the sick without using
medicines, merely by a word or touch, as Christ did (48) ; and, recalling
the thousands who had in vain sought divine aid at temple or shrine,
says that Christ sent none away unhelped (49), and that he gave this
same power to his followers also (50), which neither priest nor magian
is found to possess (51, 52). His divinity was shown also by the won-
ders which attended his death (53). Eye-witnesses— and these most
trustworthy— testified to Christ's miracles (54) ; aud the acceptance by

BOOK i.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 3

the whole world, in so short a time, of his religion attests its truth
(55). It might be said, however, that the Christian writers were not
trustworthy, and exaggerated the number and importance of Christ's
miracles (56) : in reply to which, Arnobius shows that their writings rest
on as good authority as those of the heathen (57), and that their greater
novelty and literary rudeness are in their favour rather than otherwise,
and are certainly of no weight against them (57-59). But, said the
heathen, if Christ was God, why did he live and die as a man ? Be-
cause, it is replied, God's own nature could not be made manifest to
men (60), and His reasons for choosing so to manifest Himself, and not
otherwise, though they may be within our reach, are certainly coucealed
in much obscurity (61) ; while as to Christ's death, that was but the dis-
solution of his human frame (62). Hurrying, it would seem, to con-
clude this part of the discussion, Arnobius hastily points out the great
powers which Christ might have wielded in his own defence, if he had
refused to submit to the violence offered him, which however were un-
used, because he rather chose to do for his disciples all that he had led
them to look for (63). If, then, kings and tyrants and others who lived
most wickedly, are honoured and deified, why should Christ, even if he
asserted falsely that he was a heaven-sent Saviour, be so hated and as-
sailed (64) ? If one came from distant and unknown regions, promising
to deliver all from bodily sickness, how gladly would men flock to do
him honour, and strive for his favour ! How extraordinary, then, is the
conduct of those who revile and abuse, and would destroy, if they could,
him who has come to deliver us from spiritual evils, and work out our
salvation (65) !

JINCE I have found some who deem them-
selves very wise in their opinions, acting as if
they were inspired,1 and announcing with all
the authority of an oracle,2 that from the time
when the Christian people began to exist in the world the
universe has gone to ruin, that the human race has been
visited with ills of many kinds, that even the very gods,
abandoning their accustomed charge, in virtue of which they

1 The words insanire, baccJiari, refer to the appearance of the ancient
seers when under the influence of the deity. So Virgil says, Imanam
vatem aspicies (jEn. iii. 443), and, BaccJiatur votes (SEn. vi. 78). The
meaning is, that they make their asseverations with all the confidence
of a seer when filled, as he pretended, with the influence of the god.

8 Et velut quiddam promptum ex oraculo dicere, i.e. to declare a matter
with boldness and majesty, as if most certain and undoubted.

4 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

were wont in former days to regard with interest our affairs,
have been driven from the regions of earth, — I have resolved,
so far as my capacity and my humble power of language will
allow, to oppose public prejudice, and to refute calumnious
accusations ; lest, on the one hand, those persons should ima-
gine that they are declaring some weighty matter, when they
are merely retailing vulgar rumours ;x and on the other, lest,
if we refrain from such a contest, they should suppose that
they have gained a cause, lost by its own inherent demerits,
not abandoned by the silence of its advocates. For I should
not deny that that charge is a most serious one, and that we
fully deserve the hatred attaching to public enemies,2 if it
should appear that to us are attributable causes by reason of
which the universe has deviated from its laws, the gods have
been driven far away, and such swarms of miseries have been
inflicted on the generations of men.

2. Let us therefore examine carefully the real significance
of that opinion, and what is the nature of the allegation ;
and laying aside all desire for wrangling,3 by which the calm
view of subjects is wont to be dimmed, and [even] inter-
cepted, let us test, by fairly balancing the considerations on
both sides, whether that which is alleged be true. For it
will assuredly be proved by an array of convincing arguments,
not that we are discovered to be more impious, but that
they themselves are convicted of that charge who profess to
be worshippers of the deities, and devotees of an antiquated
superstition. And, in the first place, we ask this of them in
friendly and calm language : Since the name of the Christian
religion began to be used on the earth, what phenomenon,
unseen before,4 unheard of before, what event contrary to the
laws established in the beginning, has the so-called " Nature
of Things" felt or suffered I Have these first elements,
from which it is agreed that all things were compacted, been

1 Popularia t-eria, i.e. rumours arising from the ignorance of the
common people.

2 The Christians were regarded as " public enemies," and were so called.
8 Or, " all party zeal."

4 So Meursius, — the MS. reading is inusitatum, " extraordinary."

BOOK i.] AENOBIUS ADVEESUS GENTES. 5

altered into elements of an opposite character? Has the
fabric of this machine and mass [of the universe], by which
we are all covered, and in which we are held enclosed, re-
laxed in any part, or broken up ? Has the revolution of the
globe, to which we are accustomed, departing from the rate
of its primal motion, begun either to move too slowly, or to
be hurried onward in headlong rotation ? Have the stars
begun to rise in the west, and the setting of the constellations
to take place in the east ? Has the sun himself, the chief
of the heavenly bodies, with whose light all things are
clothed, and by whose heat all things are vivified, blazed
forth with increased vehemence? has he become less warm,
and has he altered for the worse into opposite conditions that
well-regulated temperature by which he is wont to act upon
the earth ? Has the moon ceased to shape herself anew, and
to change into former phases by the constant recurrence of
fresh ones ? Has the cold of winter, has the heat of summer,
has the moderate warmth of spring and autumn, been modi-
fied by reason of the intermixture of ill-assorted seasons? Has
the winter begun to have long days ? has the night begun to
recall the very tardy twilights of summer ? Have the winds
at all exhausted their violence? Is the sky not collected1
into clouds by reason of the blasts having lost their force,
and do the fields when moistened by the showers not prosper?
Does the earth refuse to receive the seed committed to it, or
will not the trees assume their foliage ? Has the flavour of
excellent fruits altered, or has the vine changed in its juice ?
Is foul blood pressed forth from the olive berries, and is [oil]
no longer supplied to the lamp, now extinguished ? Have
animals of the land and of the sea no sexual desires, and do
they not conceive young ? Do they not guard, according to
their own habits and their own instinct, the offspring gene-
rated in their wombs ? In fine, do men themselves, whom an
active energy with its first impulses has scattered over habit-
able lands, not form marriages with due rites ? Do they not
beget dear children? do they not attend to public, to individual,
and to family concerns ? Do they not apply their talents, as
1 So Gelenius ; MS., coartatur, " pressed together."

8 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

each one pleases, to varied occupations, to different kinds of
learning ? and do they not reap the fruit of diligent applica-
tion ? Do those to whom it has been so allotted, not exercise
kingly power or military authority? Are men not every
day advanced in posts of honour, in offices of power? Do
they not preside in the discussions of the law courts ? Do
they not explain the code of law ? do they not expound the
principles of equity ? All other things with which the life
of man is surrounded, in which it consists, do not all men in
their own tribes practise, according to the established order
of their country's manners ?

3. Since this is so, and since no strange influence has
suddenly manifested itself to break the continuous course of
events by interrupting their succession, what is the ground
of the allegation, that a plague was brought upon the earth
after the Christian religion came into the world, and after
it revealed the mysteries of hidden truth ? But pestilences,
say my opponents, and droughts, wars, famines, locusts, mice,
and hailstones, and other hurtful things, by which the pro-
perty of men is assailed, the gods bring upon us, incensed as
they are by your wrong-doings and by your transgressions.
If it were not a mark of stupidity to linger on matters
which are already clear, and which require no defence, I
should certainly show, by unfolding the history of past ages,
that those ills which you speak of were not unknown, were
not sudden in their visitation ; and that the plagues did not
burst upon us, and the affairs of men begin to be attacked
by a variety of dangers, from the time that our sect1 won
the honour 2 of this appellation. For if we are to blame, and
if these plagues have been devised against our sin, whence
did antiquity know these names for misfortunes ? Whence
did she give a designation to wars ? By what conception

1 Or, " race," gens, i.e. the Christian people.

2 The verb mereri, used in this passage, has in Koman writers the
idea of merit or excellence of some kind in a person, in virtue of which
he is deemed worthy of some favour or advantage ; but in ecclesiastical
Latin it means, as here, to gain something by the mere favour of God,
without any merit of one's own.

BOOK i.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 7

could she indicate pestilence and hailstorms, or how could
she introduce these terms among her words, by which speecli
was rendered plain ? For if these ills are entirely new, and
if they derive their origin from recent transgressions, how
could it be that the ancients coined terms for these things,
which, on the one hand, they knew that they themselves had
never experienced, and which, on the other, they had not heard
of as occurring in the time of their ancestors ? Scarcity of
produce, say my opponents, and short supplies of grain, press
more heavily on us. For [I would ask] were the former gene-
rations, even the most ancient, at any period wholly free from
such an inevitable calamity? Do not the very words by which
these ills are characterized bear evidence and proclaim loudly
that no mortal ever escaped from them with entire immu-
nity? But if the matter were difficult of belief, we might
urge, on the testimony of authors, how great nations, and
what individual nations, and how often [such nations] expe-
rienced dreadful famine, and perished by accumulated devas-
tation. Very many hailstorms fall upon and assail all things.
For do we not find it contained and deliberately stated in
ancient literature, that even showers of stones1 often ruined
entire districts ? Violent rains cause the crops to perish,
and proclaim barrenness to countries: — were the ancients, in-
deed, free from these ills, when we have known of2 mighty
rivers even being dried up, and the mud of their channels
parched ? The contagious influences of pestilence consume
the human race : — ransack the records of history written
in various languages, and you will find that all countries
have often been desolated and deprived of their inhabitants.
Every kind of crop is consumed, and devoured by locusts and
by mice : — go through your own annals, and you will be
taught by these plagues how often former ages were visited
by them, and how often they were brought to the wretched-
ness of poverty. Cities shaken by powerful earthquakes
totter to their destruction : — what ! did not bygone days wit-

1 See Livy, i. 31, etc. ; and Pliny, Nat. Hist. xx. 24.

2 The MS. reads, flumina cognoverimus ingentia lim-in-is ingentia sic-
catis, " that mighty rivers shrunk up, leaving the mud," etc.

8 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK r.

ness cities with their populations engulphed by huge rents of
the earth?1 or did they enjoy a condition exempt from such
disasters?

4. When was the human race destroyed by a flood ? was
it not before us 1 When was the world set on fire,2 and re-
duced to coals and ashes? was it not before us? When
were the greatest cities engulphed in the billows of the sea ?
was it not before us ? When were wars waged with wild
beasts, and battles fought with lions ? 3 was it not before
us ? When was ruin brought on whole communities by
poisonous serpents ? 4 was it not before us ? For, inasmuch
as you are wont to lay to our blame the cause of frequent
wars, the devastation of cities, the irruptions of the Germans
and the Scythians, allow me, with your leave, to say, — In
your eagerness to calumniate us, you do not perceive the real
nature of that which is alleged.

5. Did we bring it about, that ten thousand years ago a vast
number of men burst forth from the island which is called
the Atlantis of Neptune,6 as Plato tells us, and utterly ruined
and blotted out countless tribes ? Did this form a prejudice
against us, that between the Assyrians and Bactrians, under
the leadership of Ninus and Zoroaster of old, a struggle was
maintained not only by the sword and by physical power,
but also by magicians, and by the mysterious learning of the
Chaldeans ? Is it to be laid to the charge of our religion,

1 So Tertullian, Apologet. 40, says, — "We have read that the islands
Hiera, Anaphe, Delos, Ehodes, and Cos were destroyed, together with
many human beings."

2 Arnobius, no doubt, speaks of the story of Phaethon, as told by
Ovid ; on which, cf. Plato, Tim. st. p. 22.

8 Nourry thinks that reference is here made to the contests of gladiators
and athletes with lions and other beasts in the circus. But it is more
likely that the author is thinking of African tribes who were harassed
by lions. Thus .ZElian (de Nat. Anim. xvii. 24) tells of a Libyan people,
the Nomsei, who were entirely destroyed by lions.

4 The city of Amycte in Italy is referred to, which was destroyed by
serpents.

6 In the Timseiis of Plato, c. vi. st. p. 24, an old priest of Sais, in
Egypt, is represented as telling Solon that in times long gone by the
Athenians were a very peaceful and very brave people, and that 9000

BOOK i.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 9

that Helen was carried off under the guidance and at the
instigation of the gods, and that she became a direful destiny
to her own and to after times ? Was it because of our name,
that that mad-cap Xerxes let the ocean in upon the land,
and that he marched over the sea on foot? Did we pro-
duce and stir into action the causes, by reason of which one
youth, starting from Macedonia, subjected the kingdoms and
peoples of the East to captivity and to bondage? Did we,
forsooth, urge the deities into frenzy, so that the Romans
lately, like some swollen torrent, overthrew all nations, and
swept them beneath the flood ? But if there is no man who
would dare to attribute to our times those things which took
place long ago, how can we be the causes of the present
misfortunes, when nothing new is occurring, but all things
are old, and were unknown to none of the ancients'?

6. Although you allege that those wars which you speak
of were excited through hatred of our religion, it would
not be difficult to prove, that after the name of Christ was
heard in the world, not only were they not increased, but
they were even in great measure diminished by the restrain-
ing of furious passions. For since we, a numerous band of
men as we are, have learned from his teaching and his laws
that evil ought not to be requited with evil,1 that it is better
to suffer wrong than to inflict it, that we should rather shed
our own blood than stain our hands and our conscience with

years before that time they had overcome a mighty host which came
rushing from the Atlantic Sea, and which threatened to subjugate all
Europe and Asia. The sea was then navigable, and in front of the
pillars of Hercules (Strait of Gibraltar) lay an island larger than Africa
and Asia together : from it travellers could pass to other islands, and
from these again to the opposite continent. In this island great kings
arose, who made themselves masters of the whole island, as well as of
other islands, and parts of the continent. Having already possessions in
Libya and Europe, which they wished to increase, they gathered an im-
mense host ; but it was repelled by the Athenians. Great earthquakes
and storms ensued, in which the island of Atlantis was submerged, and
the sea ever after rendered impassable by shoals of mud produced by the
sunken island. For other forms of this legend, and explanations of it,
see Smith's Dictionary of Geography, under Atlantis.
i Cf. Matt. v. 39.

10 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

that of another, an ungrateful world is now for a long period
enjoying a benefit from Christ, inasmuch as by his means
the rage of savage ferocity has been softened, and has begun
to withhold hostile hands from the blood of a fellow-creature.
But if all without exception, who feel that they are men not
in form of body but in power of reason, would lend an ear
for a little to his salutary and peaceful rules, and would not,
in the pride and arrogance of enlightenment, trust to their
own senses rather than to his admonitions, the whole world,
having turned the use of steel into more peaceful occupations,
would now be living in the most placid tranquillity, and
would unite in blessed harmony, maintaining inviolate the
sanctity of treaties.

7. But if, say my opponents, no damage is done to human
affairs by you, whence arise those evils by which wretched
mortals are now oppressed and overwhelmed ? You ask of
me a decided statement,1 which is by no means necessary
to this cause. For no immediate and prepared discussion
regarding it has been undertaken by me, for the purpose of
showing or proving from what causes and for what reasons
each event took place ; but in order to demonstrate that the
reproaches of so grave a charge are far removed from our
door. And if I prove this, if by examples and2 by powerful
arguments the truth of the matter is "made clear, I care not
whence these evils come, or from what sources and first be-
ginnings they flow.

8. And yet, that I may not seem to have no opinion on
subjects of this kind, that I may not appear when asked to
have nothing to offer, I may say, What if the primal matter
which has been diffused through the four elements of the
universe, contains the causes of all miseries inherent in its
own constitution I What if the movements of the heavenly
bodies produce these evils in certain signs, regions, seasons,
and tracts, and impose upon things placed under them the
necessity of various dangers *? What if, at stated intervals,

1 The MS. here inserts a mark of interrogation.

2 So the MS., si facto et, corrected, however, by a later copyist, si
facio ui, " if I cause that," etc.

BOOK i.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 11

changes take place in the universe, and, as in the tides of the
sea, prosperity at one time flows, at another time ebbs, evils
alternating with it? What if those impurities of matter
which we tread under our feet have this condition imposed
upon them, that they give forth the most noxious exhalations,
by means of which this our atmosphere is corrupted, and
brings pestilence on our bodies, and weakens the human race?
What if — and this seems nearest the truth — whatever appears
to us adverse, is in reality not an evil to the world itself ?
And what if, measuring by our own advantages all things
which take place, we blame the results of nature through ill-
formed judgments ? Plato, that sublime head and pillar of
philosophers, has declared in his writings, that those cruel
floods and those conflagrations of the world are a purification
of the earth ; nor did that wise man dread to call the over-
throw of the human race, its destruction, ruin, and death, a
renewal of things, and to affirm that a youthfulness, as it
were, was secured by this renewed strength.1

9. It rains not from heaven, my opponent says, and we
are in distress from some extraordinary deficiency of grain
crops. What then, do you demand that the elements should
be the slaves of your wants ? and that you may be able to
live more softly and more delicately, ought the compliant
seasons to minister to your convenience ? What if, in this
way, one who is intent on voyaging complains that now for a
long time there are no winds, and that the blasts of heaven
have for ever lulled ? Is it therefore to be said that that
peacefulness of the universe is pernicious, because it interferes
with the wishes of traders ? What if one, accustomed to bask
himself in the sun, and thus to acquire dryness of body, simi-
larly complains that by the clouds the pleasure of serene
weather is taken away ? Should the clouds, therefore, be
said to hang over with an injurious veil, because idle lust is
not permitted to scorch itself in the burning heat, and to
devise excuses for drinking? All these events which are
brought to pass, and which happen under this mass of the
universe, are not to be regarded as sent for our petty advan-
1 Plato, Tim. st. p. 22.

12 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boon i.

tages, but as consistent with the plans and arrangements of
Nature herself.

10. And if anything happens which does not foster our-
selves or our affairs with joyous success, it is not to be set
down forthwith as an evil, and as a pernicious thing. The
world rains or does not rain : for itself it rains or does not
rain ; and, though you perhaps are ignorant of it, it either
diminishes excessive moisture by a burning drought, or by the
outpouring of rain moderates the dryness extending over a
very long period. It raises pestilences, diseases, famines, and
other baneful forms of plagues : how can you tell whether it
does not thus remove that which is in excess, and whether,
through loss to themselves, it does not fix a limit to things
prone to luxuriance ?

11. Would you venture to say that, in this universe, this
thing or the other thing is an evil, whose origin and cause
you are unable to explain and to analyze ? l And because
it interferes with your lawful, perhaps even your unlawful
pleasures, would you say that it is pernicious and adverse ?
What, then, because cold is disagreeable to your members,
and is wont to chill 2 the warmth of your blood, ought not
winter on that account to exist in the world ? And because
you are unable3 to endure the hottest rays of the sun, is
summer to be removed from the year, and a different course
of nature to be instituted under different laws? Hellebore is
poison to men ; should it therefore not grow ? The wolf lies
in wait by the sheepfolds ; is nature at all in fault, because
she has produced a beast most dangerous to sheep ? The
serpent by his bite takes away life ; a reproach, forsooth, to
creation, because it has added to animals monsters so cruel.

12. It is rather presumptuous, when you are not your own
master, even when you are the property of another, to dictate
terms to those more powerful ; to wish that that should hap-
pen which you desire, not that which you have found fixed

1 " To analyze " — dissolvere — is in the MS. marked as spurious.

2 In the MS. we find " to chill and numb " — conyelare, constringcre ;
but the last word, too, is marked as spurious.

8 MS. sustinere (marked as a gloss), "to sustain;" perferre, "to endure."

BOOK i.J AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 13

in things by their original constitution. Wherefore, if you
wish that your complaints should have a basis, you must first
inform us whence you are, or who you are ; whether the
world was created and fashioned for you, or whether you
came into it as sojourners from other regions. And since it
is not in your power to say or to explain for what purpose
you live beneath this vault of heaven, cease to believe that
anything belongs to you ; since those things which take place
are not brought about in favour of a part, but have regard
to the interest of the whole.

13. Because of the Christians, my opponents say, the gods
inflict upon us all calamities, and ruin is brought on our
crops by the heavenly deities. I ask, when you say these
things, do you not see that you are accusing us with bare-
faced effrontery, with palpable and clearly proved falsehoods?
It is almost three hundred years ; — something less or more —
since we Christians began to exist, and to be taken account
of in the world. During all these years, have wars been
incessant, has there been a yearly failure of the crops, has
there been no peace on earth, has there been no season of
cheapness and abundance of all things ? For this must first
be proved by him who accuses us, that these calamities have
been endless and incessant, that men have never had a
breathing time at all, and that without any relaxation 2 they
have undergone dangers of many forms.

14. And yet do we not see that, in these years and seasons
that have intervened, victories innumerable have been gained
from the conquered enemy, — that the boundaries of the
empire have been extended, and that nations whose names
we had not previously heard, have been brought under our
power, — that very often there have been the most plentiful
yields of grain, seasons of cheapness, and such abundance
of commodities, that all commerce was paralyzed, being pros-
trated by the standard of prices? For in what manner could
affairs be carried on, and how could the human race have

1 See Introduction.

2 Sine vllisferiis, a proverbial expression, " without any holidays," i.e.
without any intermixture of good.

14 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK L

existed1 even to this time, had not the productiveness of
nature continued to supply all things which use demanded ?

15. Sometimes, however, there were seasons of scarcity ;
yet they were relieved by times of plenty. Again, certain
wars were carried on contrary to our wishes.2 But they were
afterwards compensated by victories and successes. What
shall we say, then ? — that the gods at one time bore in mind
our acts of wrong-doing, at another time again forgot them ?
If, when there is a famine, the gods are said to be enraged
at us, it follows that in time of plenty they are not wroth,
and ill-to-be-appeased ; and so the matter comes to this, that
they both lay aside and resume anger with sportive whim,
and always renew their wrath afresh by the recollection of
the causes of offence.

16. Yet one cannot discover by any rational process of
reasoning, what is the meaning of these statements. If the
gods willed that the Alemanni 3 and the Persians should be
overcome because Christians dwelt among their tribes, how
did they grant victory to the Romans when Christians dwelt
among their peoples also? If they willed that mice and
locusts should swarm forth in prodigious numbers in Asia
and in Syria because Christians dwelt among their tribes too,
why was there at the same time no such phenomenon in
Spain and in Gaul, although innumerable Christians lived in
those provinces also"? If among the Gaetuli and the Tingui-
tani 4 they sent dryness and aridity on the crops on account
of this circumstance, why did they in that very year give
the most bountiful harvest to the Moors and to the Nomads,
when a similar religion had its abode in these regions as
well ? If in any one state whatever they have caused many

1 For qui durare Ursinus would read quiret durare ; but this seems
to have no MS. authority, though giving better sense and an easier con-
struction.

2 That is, unsuccessfully.

3 Alemanni, i.e. the Germans ; hence the French Allemagne. The MS.
has Alamanni.

4 The Gsetuli and Tinguitani were African tribes. For Tinguitanos,
another reading is tune Aquilanos; but Tinguitanos is much to be pre-
ferred on every ground.

BOCK i.] AENOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 15

to die with hunger, through disgust at our name, why have
they in the same state made wealthier, ay, very rich, by the
high price of corn, not only men not of our body, but even
Christians themselves ? Accordingly, either all should have
had no blessing if we are the cause of the evils, for we are in
all nations; or when you see blessings mixed with misfortunes,
cease to attribute to us that which damages your interests,
when we in no respect interfere with your blessings and pros-
perity. For if I cause it to be ill with you, why do I not
prevent it from being well with you ? If my name is the
cause of a great dearth, why am I powerless to prevent the
greatest productiveness ? If I am said to bring the [ill] luck
of a wound being received in war, why, when the enemy are
slain, am I not an evil augury ; and why am I not set forth
against good hopes, through the ill luck of a bad omen ?

17. And yet, O ye great worshippers and priests of the
deities, why, as you assert that those most holy gods are en-
raged at Christian communities, do you not likewise perceive,
do you not see what base feelings, what unseemly frenzies,
you attribute to your deities ? For, to be angry, what else is
it than to be insane, to rave, to be urged to the lust of ven-
geance, and to revel in the troubles of another's grief, through
the madness of a savage disposition ? Your great gods, then,
know, are subject to and feel that which wild beasts, which
monstrous brutes experience, which the deadly plant natrix
contains in its poisoned roots. That nature which is superior
to others, and which is based on the firm foundation of
unwavering virtue, experiences, as you allege, the instability
which is in man, the faults which are in the animals of earth.
And what therefore follows of necessity, but that from their
eyes flashes dart, flames burst forth, a panting breast emits a
hurried breathing from their mouth, and by reason of their
burning words their parched lips become pale ?

18. But if this that you say is true, — if it has been tested
and thoroughly ascertained both that the gods boil with rage,
and that an impulse of this kind agitates the divinities with
excitement, on the one hand they are not immortal, and on
the other they are not to be reckoned as at all partaking of

16 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

divinity. For wherever, as the philosophers hold, there is any
agitation, there of necessity passion must exist. Where pas-
sion is situated, it is reasonable that mental excitement follow.
Where there is mental excitement, there grief and sorrow
exist. Where grief and sorrow exist, there is already room
for weakening and decay; and if these two harass them,
extinction is at hand, viz. death, which ends all things, and
takes away life from every sentient being.

19. Moreover, in this way you represent them as not only
unstable and excitable, but, what all agree is far removed
from the character of deity, as unfair in their dealings, as
wrong-doers, and, in fine, as possessing positively no amount
of even moderate fairness. For what is a greater wrong than
to be angry with some, and to injure others, to complain
of human beings, and to ravage the harmless corn crops, to
hate the Christian name, and to ruin the worshippers of Christ
with every kind of loss ?

20. *Do they on this account wreak their wrath on you too,
in order that, roused by your own private wounds, you may
rise up for their vengeance ? It seems, then, that the gods
seek the help of mortals ; and were they not protected by
your strenuous advocacy, they are not able of themselves to
repel and to avenge 2 the insults offered them. Nay rather,
if it be true that they burn with anger, give them an oppor-
tunity of defending themselves, and let them put forth and
make trial of their innate powers, to take vengeance for their
offended dignity. By heat, by hurtful cold, by noxious winds,
by the most occult diseases, they can slay us, they can con-
sume3 us, and they can drive us entirely from all intercourse
with men ; or if it is impolitic to assail us by violence, let
them give forth some token of their indignation,4 by which it
may be clear to all that we live under heaven subject to their
strong displeasure.

21. To you let them give good health, to .us bad, ay, the

1 The MS. reads at, " but."

2 Defendere is added in the MS., but marked as a gloss.
8 Consumere is in like manner marked as a gloss.

4 So Orelli, for the MS. judicationis, " judgment."

BOOK i.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 17

very worst. Let them water your farms with seasonable
showers ; from our little fields let them drive away all those
rains which are gentle. Let them see to it that your sheep
are multiplied by a numerous progeny; on our flocks let
them bring luckless barrenness. From your olive-trees and
vineyards let them bring the full harvest ; but let them see
to it that from not one shoot of ours one drop be expressed.
Finally, and as their worst, let them give orders that in your
mouth the products of the earth retain their natural quali-
ties ; but, on the contrary, that in ours the honey become
bitter, the flowing oil grow rancid, and that the wine when
sipped, be in the very lips suddenly changed into disappoint-
ing vinegar.

22. And since facts themselves testify that this result
never occurs, and since it is plain that to us no less share
of the bounties of life accrues, and to you no greater, what
inordinate desire is there to assert that the gods are unfa-
vourable, nay, inimical to the Christians, who, in the greatest
adversity, just as in prosperity, differ from you in no respect?
If you allow the truth to be told you, and that, too, without
reserve, these allegations are but words, — words, I say ; nay,
matters believed on calumnious reports not proved by any
certain evidence.

23. But the true1 gods, and those who are worthy to have
and to wear the dignity of this name, neither conceive anger
nor indulge a grudge, nor do they contrive by insidious de-
vices what may be hurtful to another party. For verily it
is profane, and surpasses all acts of sacrilege, to believe that
that wise and most blessed nature is uplifted in mind if one
prostrates himself before it in humble adoration ; and if this
adoration be not paid, that it deems itself despised, and re-
gards itself as fallen from the pinnacle of its glory. It is
childish, weak, and petty, and scarcely becoming for those
whom the experience of learned men has for a long time
called demigods and heroes,2 not to be versed in heavenly

1 The carelessness of some copyist makes the MS. read ve-st-ri, '"your,"
corrected as above by Ursinus.

2 So Ursinus, followed by Heraldus, LB., and Orelli, for the MS,
ABNOB. B

18 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Booic i.

things, and, divesting themselves of their own proper state,
to be busied with the coarser matter of earth.

24. These are your ideas, these are your sentiments, im-
piously conceived, and more impiously believed. Nay, rather,
to speak out more truly, the augurs, the dream interpreters,
the soothsayers, the prophets, and the priestlings, ever vain,
have devised these fables ; for they, fearing that their own
arts be brought to nought, and that they may extort but
scanty contributions from the devotees, now few and infre-
quent, whenever they have found you to be willing1 that their
craft should come into disrepute, cry aloud, The gods are
neglected, and in the temples there is now a very thin attend-
ance. Former ceremonies are exposed to derision, and the
time-honoured rites of institutions once sacred have sunk be-
fore the superstitions of new religions. Justly is the human
race afflicted by so many pressing calamities, justly is it racked
by the hardships of so many toils. And men — a senseless race
— being unable, from their inborn blindness, to see even that
which is placed in open light, dare to assert in their frenzy
what you in your sane mind do not blush to believe.

25. And lest any one should suppose that we, through
distrust in our reply, invest the gods with the gifts of serenity,
that we assign to them minds free from resentment, and far
removed from all excitement, let us allow, since it is pleasing
to you, that they put forth their passion upon us, that they
thirst for our blood, and that now for a long time they are
eager to remove us from the generations of men. But if it
is not troublesome to you, if it is not offensive, if it is a
matter of common duty to discuss the points of this argument

errores, which Stewechius would change into errones — " vagrants " — re-
ferring to the spirits wandering over the earth : most other edd., fol-
lowing Gelenius, read, " called demigods, that these indeed " — ds&monas
appellat, et Aos, etc.

1 So the MS., which is corrected in the first ed. " us to be willing " —
nos velle: Stewechius reads, " us to be making good progress, are en-
vious, enraged, and cry aloud," etc. — nos belle provenire compererunt,
invident, indignantur, declamitantque, etc. ; to both of which it is suffi-
cient objection that they do not improve the passage by their departure
from the us.

BOOK L] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 19

not on grounds of partiality, but on those of truth, we de-
mand to hear from you what is the explanation of this, what
the cause, why, on the one hand, the gods exercise cruelty
on us alone, and why, on the other, men burn against us
with exasperation. You follow, our opponents say, profane
religious systems, and you practise rites unheard of through-
out the entire world. What do you, O men, endowed with
reason, dare to assert? What do you dare to prate of?
What do you try to bring forward in the recklessness of
unguarded speech? To adore God as the highest existence,
as the Lord of all things that be, as occupying the highest
place among all exalted ones, to pray to Him with respectful
submission in our distresses, to cling to Him with all our
senses, so to speak, to love Him, to look up to Him with
faith, — is this an execrable and unhallowed religion, full of
impiety and of sacrilege, polluting by the superstition of its
own novelty ceremonies instituted of old ?

26. Is this, I pray, that daring and heinous iniquity on
account of which the mighty powers of heaven whet against
us the stings of passionate indignation, on account of which
you yourselves, whenever the savage desire has seized you,
spoil us of our goods, drive us from the homes of our fathers,
inflict upon us capital punishment, tortiire, mangle, burn us,
and at the last expose us to wild beasts, and give us to be
torn by monsters ? Whosoever condemns that in us, or
considers that it should be laid against us as a charge, is he
deserving either to be called by the name of man, though he
seem so to himself ? or is he to be believed a god, although
he declare himself to be so by the mouth of a thousand1 pro-
phets ? Does Trophonius,2 or Jupiter of Dodona, pronounce
us to be wicked ? And will he himself be called god, and be
reckoned among the number of the deities, who either fixes
the charge of impiety on those who serve the King Supreme,
or is racked with envy because His majesty and His worship
are preferred to his own ?

1 So LB. and Orelli ; but the MS. reads, " himself to be like [a god]
by [liis] prophets," etc. — se esse similem profiteatur in vatibus.

2 So corrected by Pithceus for the MS. profanus.

20 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

Is Apollo, whether called Delian or Clarian, Didymean,
Philesian, or Pythian, to be reckoned divine, who either
knows not the Supreme Ruler, or who is not aware that He
is entreated by us in daily prayers ? And although he knew
not the secrets of our hearts, and though he did not discover
what we hold in our inmost thoughts, yet he might either
know by his ear, or might perceive by the very tone of voice
which we use in prayer, that we invoke God Supreme, and
that we beg from Him what we require.

27. This is not the place to examine all our traducers, who
they are, or whence they are, what is their power, what their
knowledge, why they tremble at the mention of Christ, why
they regard his disciples as enemies and as hateful persons ;
but [with regard to ourselves] to state expressly to those who
will exercise common reason, in terms applicable to all of us
alike, — We Christians are nothing else than worshippers of
the Supreme King and Head, under our Master, Christ. If
you examine carefully, you will find that nothing else is
implied in that religion. This is the sum of all that we do ;
this is the proposed end and limit of sacred duties. Before
Him we all prostrate ourselves, according to our custom ;
Him we adore in joint prayers ; from Him we beg things
just and honourable, and worthy of his ear. Not that He
needs our supplications, or loves to see the homage of so
many thousands laid at his feet. This is our benefit, and
has a regard to our advantage. For since we are prone to
err, and to yield to various lusts and appetites through the
fault of our innate weakness, He allows Himself at all times
to be comprehended in our thoughts, that whilst we entreat
Him and strive to merit his bounties, we may receive a
desire for purity, and may free ourselves from every stain
by the removal of all our shortcomings.

28. What say ye, O interpreters of sacred and of divine
law?1 Are they attached to a better cause who adore

1 So Gelenius, followed by Orelli and others, for the MS., reading
divini interpretes viri (instead of juris) — " 0 men, interpreters of the
sacred and divine," which is retained by the 1st ed., Hildebrand, and
Oehler.

BOOK i. J AENOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 21

the Lares Grundules, the Ail Locutii,1 and the Limen-
tini,2 than we who worship God the Father of all things, and
demand of Him protection in danger and distress ? They,
too, seem to you wary, wise, most sagacious, and not worthy
of any blame, who revere Fauni and Fatuse, and the genii
of states,3 who worship Pausi and Bellonae : — we are pro-
nounced dull, doltish, fatuous, stupid, and senseless, who
have given ourselves up to God, at whose nod and pleasure
everything which exists has its being, and remains immoveable
by his eternal decree. Do you put forth this opinion ? Have
you ordained this law? Do you publish this decree, that he
be crowned with the highest honours who shall worship your
slaves ? that he merit the extreme penalty of the cross who
shall offer prayers to you yourselves, his masters ? In the
greatest states, and in the most powerful nations, sacred rites
are performed in the public name to harlots, who in old days
earned the wages of impurity, and prostituted themselves to
the lust of all ;4 [and yet for this] there are no swellings of
indignation on the part of the deities. Temples have been
erected with lofty roofs to cats, to beetles, and to heifers :5 —
the powers of the deities thus insulted are silent; nor are
they affected with any feeling of envy because they see the
sacred attributes of vile animals put in rivalry with them.
Are the deities inimical to us alone ? To us are they most

1 Aii Locutii. Shortly before the Gallic invasion, B.C. 390, a voice
•was heard at the dead of night announcing the approach of the Gauls,
but the warning was unheeded. After the departure of the Gauls, the
Eomans dedicated an altar and sacred enclosure to Aius Locutius, or
Loquens, i.e. " The Announcing Speaker," at a spot on the Via Nova,
where the voice was heard. The MS. reads aiaceos boetios, which Gelenius
emended Aios Locutios.

2 So emended by Ursinus for the MS. libentinos, which is retained in
the 1st ed., and by Gelenius, Canterus, and others. Cf. iv. 9, where
Libentina is spoken of as presiding over lusts.

3 As a soul was assigned to each individual at his birth, so a genius
was attributed to a state. The genius of the Roman people was often
represented on ancient coins.

4 Thus the Athenians paid honours to Lesena, the Romans to Acca
Laurentia and Flora.

5 The superstitions of the Egyptians are here specially referred to.

22 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

unrelenting, because we worship their Author, by whom, if
they do exist, they began to be, and to have the essence
of their power and their majesty, from whom, having ob-
tained their very divinity, so to speak, they feel that they
exist, and realize that they are reckoned among things
that be, at whose will and at whose behest they are able
both to perish and be dissolved, and not to be dissolved and
not to perish ? l For if we all grant that there is only one
great Being, whom in the long lapse of time nought else
precedes, it necessarily follows that after Him all things
were generated and put forth, and that they burst into an
existence each of its kind. But if this is unchallenged and
sure, you2 will be compelled as a consequence to confess, on
the one hand, that the deities are created,3 and on the other,
that they derive the spring of their existence from the great
source of things. And if they are created and brought
forth, they are also doubtless liable to annihilation and to
dangers ; but yet they are believed to be immortal, ever-
existent, and subject to no extinction. This is also a gift
from God their Author, that they have been privileged to
remain the same through countless ages, though by nature
they are fleeting, and liable to dissolution.

29. And would that it were allowed me to deliver this
argument with the whole world formed, as it were, into one
assembly, and to be placed in the hearing of all the human
race ! Are we therefore charged before you with an impious
religion? and because we approach the Head and Pillar4
of the universe with worshipful service, are we to be con-
sidered (to use the terms employed by you in reproaching us)
as persons to be shunned, and as godless ones ? And who
would more properly bear the odium of these names than he

1 That is, by whose pleasure and at whose command they are pre-
served from annihilation.

2 So Orelli, adopting a conjecture of Meursius, for the MS. noUs.

3 That is, not self -existent, but sprung from something previously in
being.

4 Columen is here regarded by some as equal to culmen ; but the term
" pillar" makes a good sense likewise.

BOOK i.J ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 23

who either knows, or inquires after, or believes any other
god rather than this of ours ? To Him do we not owe this
first, that we exist, that we are said to be men, that, being
either sent forth from Him, or having fallen from Him, we
are confined in the darkness of this body ? l Does it not come
from Him that we walk, that we breathe and live 1 and by
the very power of living, does He not cause us to exist and
to move with the activity of animated being ? From this do
not causes emanate, through which our health is sustained by
the bountiful supply of various pleasures ? Whose is that
world in which you live? or who hath authorized you to
retain its produce and its possession ? Who hath given that
common light, enabling us to see distinctly all things lying
beneath it, to handle them, and to examine them ? Who
has ordained that the fires of the sun should exist for the
growth of things, lest elements pregnant with life should be
numbed by settling down in the torpor of inactivity ? When
you believe that the sun is a deity, do you not ask who is his
founder, who has fashioned him "I Since the moon is a god-
dess in your estimation, do you in like manner care to know
who is her author and framer ?

30. Does it not occur to you to reflect and to examine in
whose domain you live ? on whose property you are ? whose
is that earth which you till ? 2 whose is that air which you
inhale, and return again in breathing ? whose fountains do
you abundantly enjoy? whose water? who has regulated
the blasts of the wind? who has contrived the watery
clouds? who has discriminated the productive powers of
seeds by special characteristics ? Does Apollo give you rain ?
Does Mercury send you water from heaven ? Has ^Escu-
lapius, Hercules, or Diana devised the plan of showers and

1 This is according to the doctrine of Pythagoras, Plato, Origen, and
others, who taught that the souls of men first existed in heavenly beings,
and that on account of sins of long standing they were transferred to
earthly bodies to suffer punishment. Cf. Clem. Alex. Strom, iii. p. 433.

2 The Peripatetics called God the locus rerum, r&Vo? wiiyTuy, the
" locality and the area of all things," that is, the being in whom all
else was contained.

24 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

of storms ? And how can this be, when you give forth that
they were born on earth, and that at a fixed period they
received vital perceptions ? For if the world preceded them
in the long lapse of time, and if before they were born
nature already experienced rains and storms, those who were
born later have no right of rain-giving, nor can they mix
themselves up with those methods which they found to be
in operation here, and to be derived from a greater Author.

31. O greatest, O supreme Creator of things invisible !
O thou who art thyself unseen, and who art incomprehen-
sible ! Thou art worthy, thou art verily worthy — if only
mortal tongue may speak of thee — that all breathing and
intelligent nature should never cease to feel and to return
thanks ; that it should throughout the whole of life fall on
bended knee, and offer supplication with never-ceasing prayers.
For thou art the first cause; in thee created things exist,
and thou art the space in which rest the foundations of all
things, whatever they be. Thou art illimitable, unbegotten,
immortal, enduring for aye, God thyself alone, whom no
bodily shape may represent, no outline delineate ; of virtues
inexpressible, of greatness indefinable ; unrestricted as to
locality, movement, and condition, concerning whom nothing
can be clearly expressed by the significance of man's words.
That thou mayest be understood, we must be silent; and
that erring conjecture may track thee through the shady
cloud, no word must be uttered. Grant pardon, O King
Supreme, to those who persecute thy servants ; and in virtue
of thy benign nature, forgive those who fiy from the worship
of thy name and the observance of thy religion. It is not to
be wondered at if thou art unknown ; it is a cause of greater
astonishment if thou art clearly comprehended. But per-
chance some one dares — for this remains for frantic mad-
ness to do — to be uncertain, and to express doubt whether
that God exists or not ; whether He is believed in on the
proved truth of reliable evidence, or on the imaginings of
empty rumour. For of those who have given themselves to
philosophizing, we have heard that some1 deny the existence
1 Diagoras of Melos and Theodoras of Gyrene, called the Atheists.

BOOK i.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 25

of any divine power, that others1 inquire daily whether there
be or not; that others2 construct the whole fabric of the
universe by chance accidents and by random collision, and
fashion it by the concourse of atoms of different shapes ; with
whom we by no means intend to enter at this time on a dis-
cussion of such perverse convictions.3 For those who think
wisely say, that to argue against things palpably foolish, is a
mark of greater folly.

32. Our discussion deals with those who, acknowledging
that there is a divine race of beings, doubt about those of
greater rank and power, whilst they admit that there are
deities inferior and more humble. What then? Do we
strive and toil to obtain such results by arguments ? Far
hence be such madness ; and, as the phrase is, let the folly,
say I, be averted from us. For it is as dangerous to attempt
to prove by arguments that God is the highest being, as it is
to wish to discover by reasoning of this kind that He exists.
It is a matter of indifference whether you deny that He exists,
or affirm it and admit it ; since equally culpable are both the
assertion of such a thing, and the denial of an unbelieving
opponent.

33. Is there any human being who has not entered on the
first day of his life with an idea of that Great Head ? In
whom has it not been implanted by nature, on whom has it
not been impressed, aye, stamped almost in his mother's womb
even, in whom is there not a native instinct, that He is King
and Lord, the ruler of all things that be ? In fine, if the
dumb animals even could stammer forth their thoughts, if
they were able to use our languages ; nay, if trees, if the clods
of the earth, if stones animated by vital perceptions were able
to produce vocal sounds, and to utter articulate speech, would
they not in that case, with nature as their guide and teacher,

The former flourished about B.C. 430, the latter about B.C. 310. See
Cic. Nat. Dear. i. 2.

1 Protagoras of Abdera, b. B.C. 480, d. 411.

2 Democritus of Abdera, b. B.C. 460, and Epicurus, b. B.C. 342, d. 270.

3 Obstinatione, literally "stubbornness;" Walker conjectures opinativne,
"imaginings," which Orelli approves.

26 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

in the faith of uncorrupted innocence, both feel that there is
a God, and proclaim that He alone is Lord of all ?

34. But in vain, says one, do you assail us with a ground-
less and calumnious charge, as if we deny that there is a deity
of a higher kind, since Jupiter is by us both called and esteemed
the best and the greatest ; and since we have dedicated to
him the most sacred abodes, and have raised huge Capitols.
You are endeavouring to connect together things which are
dissimilar, and to force them into one class, [thereby] intro-
ducing confusion. For by the unanimous judgment of all, and
by the common consent of the human race, the omnipotent
God is regarded as having never been born, as having never
been brought forth to new light, and as not having begun
to exist at any time or century. For He Himself is the
source of all things, the Father of ages and of seasons. For
they do not exist of themselves, but from His everlasting
perpetuity they move on in unbroken and ever endless flow.
Yet Jupiter indeed, as you allege, has both father and
mother, grandfathers, grandmothers, and brothers : now
lately conceived in the womb of his mother, being completely
formed and perfected in ten months, he burst with vital sensa-
tions into light unknown to him before. If, then, this is so,
how can Jupiter be God [supreme], when it is evident that
He is everlasting, and the former is represented by you as
having had a natal day, and as having uttered a mournful
cry, through terror at the strange scene ?

35. But suppose they be one, as you wish, and not different
in any power of deity and in majesty, do you therefore per-
secute us with undeserved hatred ? Why do you shudder
at the mention of our name as of the worst omen, if we too
worship the deity whom you worship ? or why do you con-
tend that the gods are friendly to you, but inimical, aye,
most hostile to us, though our relations to them are the same ?
For if one religion is common to us and to you, the anger of
the gods is stayed j1 but if they are hostile to us alone, it is

1 So the MS. ; for which Meursius would read, nobis iwbisque, corn-
munis esset (for cessat) — " is to us and to you, the anger of the gods
would be [shared in] common."

BOOK i.] A RNOBI US AD VEES US GENTES. 2 7

plain that both you and they have no knowledge of God.
And that that God is not Jove, is evident by the very wrath
of the deities.

36. But, says my opponent, the deities are not inimical to
you, because you worship the omnipotent God ; but because
you both allege that one born as men are, and put to death
on the cross, which is a disgraceful punishment even for
worthless men, was God, and because you believe that he
still lives, and because you worship him in daily supplica-
tions. If it is agreeable to you, my friends, state clearly
what deities those are who believe that the worship of Christ
by us has a tendency to injure them? Is it Janus, the
founder of the Janiculum, and Saturn, the author of the
Saturnian state I Is it Fauna Fatua,1 the wife of Faunus,
who is called the Good Goddess, but who is better and more
deserving of praise in the drinking of wine ? Is it those
gods [Indigetes] who swim in the river, and live in the
channels of the Numicius, in company with frogs and little
fishes ? Is it JEsculapius and father Bacchus, the former
born of Coronis, and the other dashed by lightning from his
mother's womb ? Is it Mercury, son of Maia, and what is
more divine, [Maia] the beautiful ? Is it the bow-bearing
deities Diana and Apollo, who were companions of their
mother's wanderings, and who were scarcely safe in float-
ing islands ? Is it Venus, daughter of Dione, paramour of
a man of Trojan family, and the prostituter of her secret
charms 1 Is it Ceres, born in Sicilian territory, and Proser-
pine, surprised while gathering flowers ? Is it the Tlieban
or the Phoenician Hercules, — the latter buried in Spanish
territory, the other burned by fire on Mount CEta? Is it
the brothers Castor and Pollux, sons of Tyndareus, — the
one accustomed to tame horses, the other an excellent boxer,
and unconquerable with the untanned gauntlet ? Is it the
Titans and the Bocchores of the Moors, and the Syrian2

1 So Ursinus, followed by most edd., for the reading of the us.
Feitta Fatua, cf. v. 18. A later writer has corrected the MS. Fanda,
which, Rigaltius says, an old gloss renders " mother."

8 So restored by Salmasius for Dioscuri, and understood by him aa

28 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

deities, the offspring of eggs ? Is it Apis, born in the
Peloponnese, and in Egypt called Serapis? Is it Isis,
tanned by Ethiopian suns, lamenting her lost son and
husband torn limb from limb? Passing on, we omit the
royal offspring of Opis, which your writers have in their
books set forth for your instruction, telling you both who
they are, and of what character. Do these, then, hear with
offended ears that Christ is worshipped, and that he is
accepted by us and regarded as a divine person ? And
being forgetful of the grade and state in which they re-
cently were, are they unwilling to share with another that
which has been granted to themselves ? Is this the justice
of the heavenly deities ? Is this the righteous judgment of
the gods ? Is not this a kind of malice and of greed ? is it
not a species of base envy, to wish their own fortunes only
to rise, — those of others to be lowered, and to be trodden
down in despised lowliness ?

37. We worship one who was born a man. What then ?
do you worship no one who was born a man ? Do you not
worship one and another, aye, deities innumerable ? Nay,
have you not taken from the number of mortals all those
whom you now have in your temples; and have you not
set them in heaven, and among the constellations "I For
if, perchance, it has escaped you that they once partook of
human destiny, and of the state common to all men, search
the most ancient literature, and range through the writings
of those who, living nearest to the days of antiquity, set
forth all things with undisguised truth and without flattery :
you will learn in detail from what fathers, from what
mothers they were each sprung, in what district they were

meaning Dea Syria, i.e. Venus, because it is said that a large egg hav-
ing been found by the fish in the Euphrates, was pushed up by them to
the dry land, when a dove came down, and sat upon it until the goddess
came forth. Such was the form of the legend according to Nigidius ;
but Eratosthenes spoke of both Venus and Cupid as being produced in
this manner. The Syrian deities were therefore Venus, Cupid, and
perhaps Adonis. It should be remembered, however, that the Syrians
paid reverence to pigeons and fish as gods (Xen. Anab. i. 4, 9), and that
these may therefore be meant.

BOOK i.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 29

born, of what tribe ; what they made, what they did, what
they endured, how they employed themselves, what fortunes
they experienced of an adverse or of a favourable kind in
discharging their functions. But if, while you know that
they were borne in the womb, and that they lived on the
produce of the earth, you nevertheless upbraid us with the
worship of one born like ourselves, you act with great in-
justice, in regarding that as worthy of condemnation in us
which you yourselves habitually do ; or what you allow to
be lawful for you, you are unwilling to be in like manner
lawful for others.

38. But in the meantime let us grant, in submission to
your ideas, that Christ was one of us — similar in mind, soul,
body, weakness, and condition ; is he not worthy to be called
and to be esteemed God by us, in consideration of his
bounties, so numerous as they are ? For if you have placed
in the assembly1 of the gods Liber, because he discovered
the use of wine ; Ceres, because she discovered the use of
bread ; ^Esculapius, because he discovered the use of herbs ;
Minerva, because she produced the olive ; Triptolemus, be-
cause he invented the plough ; Hercules, because he over-
powered and restrained wild beasts and robbers, and water-
serpents of many heads, — with how great distinctions is he
to be honoured by us, who, by instilling his truth into our
hearts, has freed us from great errors ; who, when we were
straying everywhere, as if blind and without a guide, with-
drew us from precipitous and devious paths, and set our feet
on more smooth places ; who has pointed out what is espe-
cially profitable and salutary for the human race ; who has
shown us what God is,2 who he is, how great and how good ;
who has permitted and taught us to conceive and to under-
stand, as far as our limited capacity can, his profound and
inexpressible depths ; who, in his great kindness, has caused
it to be known by what founder, by what creator this world
was established and made ; who has explained the nature of

1 So all edd., except those of Hildebrand and Oehler, for the MS. cen-
tum— "list."

2 That is, that God is a Spirit.

30 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

its origin l and essential substance, never before imagined in
the conceptions of any ; whence generative warmth is added
to the rays of the sun ; why the moon, always uninjured 2 in
her motions, is believed to alternate her light and her obscu-
rity from intelligent causes;3 what is the origin of animals,
what rules regulate seeds; who designed man himself, who
fashioned him, or from what kind of material did he com-
pact the very build of bodies ; what the perceptions are ;
what the soul, and whether it flew to us of its own ac-
cord, or whether it was generated and brought into exist-
ence with our bodies themselves ; whether it sojourns with
us, partaking of death, or whether it is gifted with an end-
less immortality ; what condition awaits us when we shall
have separated from our bodies relaxed in death ; whether
we shall retain our perceptions,4 or have no recollection of
our former sensations or of past memories;5 who has re-
strained 6 our arrogance, and has caused our necks, uplifted
with pride, to acknowledge the measure of their weakness ;
who hath shown that we are creatures imperfectly formed,
that we trust in vain expectations, that we understand

1 Orelli would refer these words to God ; he thinks that with those
immediately following they may be understood of God's spiritual nature,
— an idea which he therefore supposes Arnobius to assert had never
been grasped by the heathen.

2 So Gelenius, followed by Orelli and others, for the corrupt reading
of the MS., idem ne quis ; but possibly both this and the preceding clause
have crept into the text from the margin, as in construction they differ
from the rest of the sentence, both that which precedes, and that which
follows.

3 The phrase animalibus causis is regarded by commentators as equal
to animatis causis, and refers to the doctrine of the Stoics, that in the
sun, moon, stars, etc., there was an intelligent nature, or a certain
impulse of mind, which directed their movements.

4 Lit. " shall see" — visuri, the reading of the MS. ; changed in the first
ed. and others to victuri — " shall live."

8 Some have suggested a different construction of these words — memo-
riam nuUam nostri sensus et recordationis habituri, thus — " have no memory
of ourselves and senses of recollection ;" but that adopted above is sim-
pler, and does not force the words as this seems to do.

6 The MS. and 1st and 2d Roman edd. read, qui constringit — " who
restrains."

BOOK i.] ARNOBIUS ADVEESUS GENTES. 31

nothing thoroughly, that we know nothing, and that we
do not see those things which are placed before our eyes ;
who has guided us from false superstitions to the true reli-
gion,— a blessing which exceeds and transcends all his other
gifts ; who has raised our thoughts to heaven from brutish
statues formed of the vilest clay, and has caused us to hold
converse in thanksgiving and prayer with the Lord of the
universe.

39. But lately, O blindness, I worshipped images produced
from the furnace, gods made on anvils and by hammers, the
bones of elephants, paintings, wreaths on aged trees;1 when-
ever I espied an anointed stone and one bedaubed with olive
oil, as if some power resided in it I worshipped it, I addressed
myself to it and begged blessings from a senseless stock.
And these very gods of whose existence I had convinced my-
self, I treated with gross insults, when I believed them to be
wood, stone, and bones, or imagined that they dwelt in the
substance of such objects. Now, having been led into the
paths of truth by so great a teacher, I know what all these
things are, I entertain honourable thoughts concerning those
which are worthy, I offer no insult to any divine name ; and
what is due to each, whether inferior2 or superior, I assign
with clearly-defined gradations, and on distinct authority. Is
Christ, then, not to be regarded by us as God? and is he,
who in other respects may be deemed the very greatest, not
to be honoured with divine worship, from whom we have
already received while alive so great gifts, and from whom,
when the day comes, we expect greater ones ?

40. But he died nailed to the cross. What is that to the
argument 1 For neither does the kind and disgrace of the
death change his words or deeds, nor will the weight of his

1 It was a common practice with the Romans to hang the spoils of an
enemy on a tree, which was thus consecrated to some deity. Hence
such trees were sacred, and remained unhurt even to old age. Some
have supposed that the epithet " old " is applied from the fact that the
heathen used to offer to their gods objects no longer of use to them-
selves ; thus it was only old trees, past bearing fruit, which were gene-
rally selected to hang the xjtolia upon.

8 Vel personx vel capiti.

32 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

teaching appear less ; because he freed himself from the
shackles of the body, not by a natural separation, but de-
parted by reason of violence offered to him. Pythagoras
of Samos was burned to death in a temple, under an unjust
suspicion of aiming at sovereign power. Did his doctrines
lose their peculiar influence, because he breathed forth his
life not willingly, but in consequence of a savage assault ?
In like manner Socrates, condemned by the decision of his
fellow-citizens, suffered capital punishment : have his discus-
sions on morals, on virtues, and on duties been rendered vain,
because he was unjustly hurried from life ? Others without
number, conspicuous by their renown, their merit, and their
public character, have experienced the most cruel forms of
death, as Aquilius, Trebonius, and Regulus : were they on
that account adjudged base after death, because they perished
not by the common law of the fates, but after being mangled
and tortured in the most cruel kind of death ? No inno-
cent person foully slain is ever disgraced thereby; nor is
he stained by the mark of any baseness, who suffers severe
punishment, not from his own deserts, but by reason of the
savage nature of his persecutor.1

41. And yet, O ye who laugh because we worship one
who died an ignominious death, do not ye too, by conse-
crating shrines to him, honour father Liber, who was torn
limb from limb by the Titans ? Have you not, after his
punishment and his death by lightning, named ^Esculapius,
the discoverer of medicines, as the guardian and protector
of health, of strength, and of safety ? Do you not invoke
the great Hercules himself by offerings, by victims, and by
kindled frankincense, whom you yourselves allege to have
been burned alive after his punishment,2 and to have been

1 So all the later edd. ; but in the MS., 1st and 2d Roman edd., and in
those of Gelenius and Canterus, this clause reads, cruciatoris perpelitur
sssvitatem — " but suffers the cruelty of his persecutor."

2 The words post pcenas in the text are regarded as spurious by Orelli,
who supposes them to have crept in from the preceding sentence ; but
they may be defended as sufficiently expressing the agonies which Her-
cules suffered through the fatal shirt of Nessus.

BOOK i.] ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 33

consumed on the fatal pyres ? Do you not, with the unani-
mous approbation of the Gauls, invoke as a propitious l and
as a holy god, in the temples of the Great Mother,2 that
Phrygian Atys3 who was mangled and deprived of his viri-
lity"? Father Romulus himself, who was torn in pieces by
the hands of a hundred senators, do you not call Quirinus
Marti us, and do you not honour him with priests and with
gorgeous couches,4 and do you not worship him in most
spacious temples ; and in addition to all this, do you not affirm
that he has ascended into heaven? Either, therefore, you
too are to be laughed at, who regard as gods men slain by
the most cruel tortures ; or if there is a sure ground for your
thinking that you should do so, allow us too to feel assured
for what causes and on what grounds we do this.

42. You worship one who was born a human being, [say
my opponents]. Even if that were true, as has been already
said in former passages, yet, in consideration of the many
liberal gifts which he has bestowed on us, he ought to be
called and be addressed as God. Since he is a God in reality
and without any shadow of doubt, do you think that we will
deny that he is worshipped by us with all the fervour we are
capable of, and assumed as the guardian of our body ? Is
that Christ of yours a god, then ? some raving, wrathful, and
excited man will say. A god, we will reply, and a god of the
inner powers;5 and — what may still further torture unbelievers

1 The words deum propitium are indeed found in the MS., but accord-
ing to Rigaltius are not in the same handwriting as the rest of the work.

2 Cybele, whose worship was conjoined with that of Atys.
8 So Orelli, but the MS. Attis.

4 This refers to the practice of placing the images of the gods on pil-
lows at feasts. In the temples there were pulvinaria, or couches, specially
for the purpose.

5 The phrase j)otentiarum interiorum is not easily understood. Orelli
is of opinion that it means those powers which in the Bible are called
the " powers of heaven," the "army of heaven," i.e. the angels. The
Jews and the early fathers of the church divided the heaven into
circles or zones, each inhabited by its peculiar powers or intelligent
natures, differing in dignity and in might. The central place was
assigned to God himself, and to Christ, who sat on his right hand, and
who is called by the fathers of the church the " Angel of the Church,"

C

34 TT7E SEVEN BOOKS OF [Booic i.

with the most bitter pains— he was sent to us by the King
Supreme for a purpose of the very highest moment. My
opponent, becoming more mad and more frantic, will per-
haps ask whether the matter can be proved, as we allege.
There is no greater proof than the credibility of the acts
done by him, than the unwonted excellence of the virtues
[he exhibited], than the conquest and the abrogation of all
those deadly ordinances which peoples and tribes saw exe-
cuted in the light of day,1 with no objecting voice ; and even
they whose ancient laws or whose country's laws he shows
to be full of vanity and of the most senseless superstition,
(even they) dare not allege these things to be false.

43. My opponent will perhaps meet me with many other
slanderous and childish charges which are commonly urged.
Jesus was a Magian ; 2 he effected all these things by
secret arts. From the shrines of the Egyptians he stole the
names of angels of might,3 and the religious system of a
remote country. Why, O witlings, do you speak of things
which you have not examined, and which are unknown to
you, prating with the garrulity of a rash tongue I Were,
then, those things which were done, the freaks of demons, and

and the " Angel of the New Covenant." Next in order came " Thrones,"
" Archangels," " Cherubim and Seraphim," and most remote from God's
throne, the " Chorus of Angels," the tutelar genii of men. The system
of zones and powers seems to have been derived from the Chaldeans,
who made a similar division of the heavens. According to this idea,
Arnobius speaks of Christ as nearest to the Father, and God of the
" inner powers," who enjoyed God's immediate presence. Eeference is
perhaps made to some recondite doctrine of the Gnostics. It may mean,
however, the more subtile powers of nature, as affecting both the souls of
men and the physical universe.

1 So Orelli with most edd., following Ursinus, for the US. suo ge-ne-
ri-s sub limine, which might, however, be retained, as if the sense were
that these ordinances were coeval with man's origin, and translated,
" tribes saw at the beginning of their race."

2 Magus, almost equivalent to sorcerer.

3 Arnobius uses nomina, " names," with special significance, because
the Magi in their incantations used barbarous and fearful names of angels
and of powers, by whose influence they thought strange and unusual
things were brought to pass.

BOOK i.] ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 35

the tricks of magical arts ? Can you specify and point out
to me any one of all those magicians who have ever existed
in past ages, that did anything similar, in the thousandth
degree, to Christ ? Who has done this without any power
of incantations, without the juice of herbs and of grasses,
without any anxious watching of sacrifices, of libations, or
of seasons ? For we do not press it, and inquire what they
profess to do, nor in what kind of acts all their learning and
experience are wont to be comprised. For who is not aware
that these men either study to know beforehand things im-
pending, which, whether they will or not, come of necessity
as they have been ordained ? or to inflict a deadly and
wasting disease on whom they choose ; or to sever the affec-
tions of relatives ; or to open without keys places which are
locked ; or to seal the mouth in silence ; or in the chariot race
to weaken, urge on, or retard horses ; or to inspire in wives,
and in the children of strangers, whether they be males or
females, the flames and mad desires of illicit love ? l Or if
they seem to attempt anything useful, to be able to do it
not by their own power, but by the might of those deities
whom they invoke.

44. And yet it is agreed on that Christ performed all those
miracles which he wrought without any aid from external
things, without the observance of any ceremonial, without
any definite mode of procedure, [but solely] by the inherent
might of his authority ; and as was the proper duty of a true
God, as was consistent with his nature, as was worthy of
him, in the generosity of his bounteous power he bestowed
nothing hurtful or injurious, but [only that which is] helpful,
beneficial, and full of blessings good 2 for men.

1 All these different effects the magicians of old attempted to produce :
to break family ties by bringing plagues into houses, or by poisons ; open
doors and unbind chains by charms (Orig. contra Cels. ii.) ; affect horses
in the race (of which Hieronymus in his Life of Hilarion gives an
example) ; and use philters and love potions to kindle excessive and
unlawful desires.

2 So Orelli and most edd., following a marginal reading of Ursinus,
auxiliaribus plenum lonis (for the MS. nobis).

36 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boon i.

45. What do you say again, oh you1 ? Is he then

a man, is he one of us, at whose command, at whose voice,
raised in the utterance of audible and intelligible words,2 in-
firmities, diseases, fevers, and other ailments of the body fled
away t Was he one of us, whose presence, whose very sight,
that race of demons which took possession of men was unable
to bear, and terrified by the strange power, fled away ? Was
he one of us, to whose order the foul leprosy, at once checked,
was obedient, and left sameness of colour to bodies formerly
spotted ? Was he one of us, at whose light touch the issues
of blood were stanched, and stopped their excessive flow 1 3
Was he one of us, whose hands the waters of the lethargic
dropsy fled from, and that searching4 fluid avoided; and did
the swelling body, assuming a healthy dryness, find relief ?
Was he one of us, who bade the lame run "? Was it his
work, too, that the maimed stretched forth their hands, and
the joints relaxed the rigidity5 acquired even at birth; that
the paralytic rose to their feet, and persons now carried home
their beds who a little before were borne on the shoulders of
others ; the blind were restored to sight, and men born with-
out eyes now looked on the heaven and the day ?

46. Was he one of us, I say, who by one act of inter-
vention at once healed a hundred or more afflicted with
various infirmities and diseases; at whose word only the
raging and maddened seas were still, the whirlwinds and
tempests were lulled ; who walked over the deepest pools

1 In the height of his indignation and contempt, the writer stops short
and does not apply to his opponents any new epithet.

2 This is contrasted with the mutterings and strange words used by
the magicians.

8 So the MS. according to Oehler, and seemingly Heraldus ; but ac-
cording to Orelli, the MS. reads immoderati (instead of — os) coJiibelant
fluores, which Meursius received as equivalent to " the excessive flow-
stayed itself."

4 Penetrabilis, " searching," i.e. finding its way to all parts of the
body.

* So Orelli, LB., Elmenhorst, and Stewechius, adopting a marginal
reading of Ursinus, which prefixes im — to the MS. mobilitates — " loose-
ness"— retained by the other edd.

BOOK i.] ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 37

with unwet foot; who trod the ridges of the deep, the very
waves being astonished, and nature coming under bondage ;
who with five loaves satisfied five thousand of his followers ;
and who, lest it might appear to the unbelieving and hard of
heart to be an illusion, filled twelve capacious baskets with
the fragments that remained? Was he one of us, who
ordered the breath that had departed to return to the body,
persons buried to come forth from the tomb, and after
three days to be loosed from the swathings of the under-
taker? Was he one of us, who saw clearly in the hearts
of the silent what each was pondering,1 what each had in
his secret thoughts ? Was he one of us, who, when he
uttered a single word, was thought by nations far removed
from one another and of different speech to be using well-
known sounds, and the peculiar language of each?2 Was
he one of us, who, when he was teaching his followers the
duties of a religion that could not be gainsaid, suddenly filled
the whole world, and showed how great he was and who he
Avas, by unveiling the boundlessness of his authority ? Was
he one of us, who, after his body had been laid in the tomb,
manifested himself in open day to countless numbers of
men; who spoke to them, and listened to them; who taught
them, reproved and admonished them ; who, lest they should
imagine that they were deceived by unsubstantial fancies,
showed himself once, a second time, aye frequently, in familial-
conversation ; who appears even now to righteous men of
unpolluted mind who love him, not in airy dreams, but in a
form of pure simplicity;3 whose name, when heard, puts to
flight evil spirits, imposes silence on soothsayers, prevents
men from consulting the augurs, causes the efforts of arro-
gant magicians to be frustrated, not by the dread of his name,
as you allege, but by the free exercise of a greater power ?

1 Cf. John ii. 25.

2 No such miracle is recorded of Christ, and Oehler suggests with
some probability that Arnobius may have here fallen into confusion as
to what is recorded of the apostles on the day of Pentecost.

3 The Latin is, per purge speciem simplicitatis, which is not easily under-
stood, and is less easily expressed.

38 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

47. These facts set forth in summary we have put for-
ward, not on the supposition that the greatness of the agent
was to be seen in these virtues alone. For however great
these things be, how excessively petty and trifling will they
be found to be, if it shall be revealed from what realms
he has come, of what God he is the minister! But with
regard to the acts which were done by him, they were per-
formed, indeed, not that he might boast himself in empty
ostentation, but that hardened and unbelieving men might be
assured that what was professed was not deceptive, and that
they might now learn to imagine, from the beneficence of
his works, what a true god was. At the same time we
wish this also to be known,1 when, as was said, an enumera-
tion of his acts has been given in summary, that Christ was
able to do not only those things which he did, but that he
could even overcome the decrees of fate. For if, as is evi-
dent, and as is agreed by all, infirmities and bodily sufferings,
if deafness, deformity, and dumbness, if shrivelling of the
sinews and the loss of sight happen to us, and are brought on
us by the decrees of fate, and if Christ alone has corrected
this, has restored and cured man, it is clearer than the sun
himself that he was more powerful than the fates are when he
has loosened and overpowered those things which were bound
with everlasting knots, and fixed by unalterable necessity.

48. But, says some one, you in vain claim so much for
Christ, when we now know, and have in past times known,
of other gods both giving remedies to many who were sick,
and healing the diseases and the infirmities of many men. I
do not inquire, I do not demand, what god did so, or at what
time ; whom he relieved, or what shattered frame he restored
to sound health : this only I long to hear, whether, without
the addition of any substance — that is, of any medical appli-
cation— he ordered diseases to fly away from men at a touch ;
whether he commanded and compelled the cause of ill health
to be eradicated, and the bodies of the weak to return to
their natural strength. For it is known that Christ, either

1 So almost all edd. ; but tr.e MS. and 1st and 2d Roman edd. read
scire— " to know," etc.

BOOK i.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 39

by applying his hand to the parts affected, or by the com-
mand of his voice only, opened the ears of the deaf, drove
away blindness from the eyes, gave speech to the dumb,
loosened the rigidity of the joints, gave the power of walking
to the shrivelled, — was wont to heal by a word and by an
order, leprosies, agues, dropsies, and all other kinds of ail-
ments, which some fell power1 has willed that the bodies
of men should endure. What act like these have all
those gods done, by whom you allege that help has been
brought to the sick and the imperilled ? for if they have
at any time ordered, as is reported, either that medicine
or a special diet be given to some,2 or that a draught
be drunk off, or that the juices of plants and of blades
be placed3 on that which causes uneasiness, or [have or-
dered] that persons should walk, remain at rest, or abstain
from something hurtful, — and that this is no great matter,
and deserves no great admiration, is evident, if you will
attentively examine it — a similar mode of treatment is fol-
lowed by physicians also, a creature earth-born and not
relying on true science, but founding on a system of conjec-
ture, and wavering in estimating probabilities. Now there
is no [special] merit in removing by remedies those ailments
which affect men : the healing qualities belong to the drugs —
not virtues inherent in him who applies them ; and though it
is praiseworthy to know by what medicine or by what method
it may be suitable for persons to be treated, there is room, for
this credit being assigned to man, but not to the deity. For
it is [at least] no discredit that he4 should have improved the
health of man by things taken from without: it is a disgrace to
a god that he is not able to effect it of himself, but that he
gives soundness and safety [only] by the aid of external objects.
49. And since you compare Christ and the other deities as

1 See Bk. ii. chap. 36.

2 The gods in whose temples the sick lay ordered remedies through
the priests.

8 So all edd. except LB., which reads with the MS. superponere —
*' that [one] place the juices," etc.
* That is, the physician.

40 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

to the blessings of health bestowed, how many thousands of
infirm persons do you wish to be shown to you by us ; how
many persons affected with wasting diseases, whom no appli-
ances whatever restored, although they went as suppliants
through all the temples, although they prostrated themselves
before the gods, and swept the very thresholds with their
lips — though, as long as life remained, they wearied with
prayers, and importuned with most piteous vows YEsculapius
himself, the health-giver, as they call him? Do we not know
that some died of their ailments ? that others grew old by the
torturing pain of their diseases ? that others began to live a
more abandoned life after they had wasted their days 1 and
nights in incessant prayers, and in expectation of mercy ? 2
Of what avail is it, then, to point to one or another who
may have been healed, when so many thousands have been
left unaided, and the shrines are full of all the wretched and
the unfortunate ? Unless, perchance, you say that the gods
help the good, but that the miseries of the wicked are over-
looked. And yet Christ assisted the good and the bad alike ;
nor was there any one rejected by him, who in adversity
sought help against violence and the ills of fortune. For
this is the mark of a true god and of kingly power, to deny
his bounty to none, and not to consider who merits it or
who does not ; since natural infirmity and not the choice of
his desire, or of his sober judgment, makes a sinner. To
say, moreover, that aid is given by the gods to the deserving
when in distress, is to leave undecided and render doubtful
what you assert : so that both he who has been made whole
may seem to have been preserved by chance, and he who is
not may appear to have been unable to banish infirmity, not be-
cause of his demerit, but by reason of a heaven-sent weakness.3

1 So the edd., reading tri-v-erunt, for the MS. tri-lu-erunt — " given
up," which is retained in the first ed.

2 Pietatis, " of mercy," in which sense the word is often used in late
writers. Thus it was from his clemency that Antoninus, the Koman
emperor, received the title of Pitts.

3 So most edd., following a marginal reading of Ursinus, which pre-
fixes in — to the MS. firmitate.

BOOK i.] ARNOB1US ADVERSUS GENTES. 41

50. Moreover, by his own power he not only performed
those miraculous deeds which have been detailed by us in sum-
mary, and not as the importance of the matter demanded ;
but, what was more sublime, he has permitted many others
to attempt them, and to perform them by the use of his
name. For when he foresaw that you were to be the de-
tractors of his deeds and of his divine work, in order that
no lurking suspicion might remain of his having lavished
these gifts and bounties by magic arts, from the immense
multitude of people, which with admiring wonder strove to
gain his favour, he chose fishermen, artisans, rustics, and
unskilled persons of a similar kind, that they being sent
through various nations should perform all those miracles with-
out any deceit and without any material aids. By a word he
assuaged the racking pains of the aching members ; and by
a word they checked the writhings of maddening sufferings.
By one command he drove demons from the body, and re-
stored their senses to the lifeless; they, too, by no different
command, restored to health and to soundness of mind those
labouring under the inflictions of these [demons].1 By the
application of his hand he removed the marks of leprosy;
they, too, restored to the body its natural skin by a touch
not dissimilar. He ordered the dropsical and swollen flesh
to recover its natural dryness ; and his servants in the same
manner stayed the wandering waters, and ordered them to
glide through their own channels, avoiding injury to the
frame. Sores of immense size, refusing to admit of healing,
he restrained from further feeding on the flesh, by the inter-
position of one word ; and they in like manner, by restricting
its ravages, compelled the obstinate and merciless cancer to
confine itself to a scar. To the larne he gave the power of
walking, to the dark eyes sight, the dead he recalled to

1 " They, too, . . . those labouring under the inflictions of these :" sa
LB., with the warm approval of Orelli (who, however, with previous
cdd., retains the MS. reading in his text) and others, reading sub eorum
t-ortantes (for MS. p — ) et illi se casibus ; Heraldus having suggested
rutantes. This simple and elegant emendation makes it unnecessary to
notice the harsh and forced readings of earlier edd.

42 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Booic i.

life ; and not less surely did they, too, relax the tightened
nerves, fill the eyes with light already lost, and order the
dead to return from the tombs, reversing the ceremonies of
the funeral rites. Nor was anything calling forth the be-
wildered admiration of all done by him, which he did not
freely allow to be performed by those humble and rustic
men, and which he did not put in their power.

51. What say ye, O minds incredulous, stubborn, har-
dened? Did that great Jupiter Capitolinus of yours give
to any human being power of this kind ? Did he endow
with this right any priest of a curia, the Pontifex Maxi-
mus, nay, even the Dialis, in whose name he is [revealed
as] the god of life?1 I shall not say, [did he impart power]
to raise the dead, to give light to the blind, restore the
normal condition of their members to the weakened and
the paralyzed, but [did he even enable any one] to check
a pustule, a hangnail, a pimple, either by the word of his
mouth or the touch of his hand ? Was this, then, a power
natural to man, or could such a right be granted, could such
a licence be given by the mouth of one reared on the vulgar
produce of earth ; and was it not a divine and sacred gift? or
if the matter admits of any hyperbole, was it not more than
divine and sacred ? For if you do that which you are able
to do, and what is compatible with your strength and your
ability, there is no ground for the expression of astonishment ;
for you will have done that which you were able, and which
your power was bound to accomplish, in order that there
should be a perfect correspondence2 between the deed and
the doer. To be able to transfer to a man your own power,

1 So understood by Orelli, who reads quo Dius est, adopting the ex-
planation of Dialis given by Festus. The MS., however, according to
Crusius, reads, Dialem, quod ejus est, flaminem isto jure donavit ; in which
case, from the position of the quod, the meaning might be, " which
[term] is his," or possibly, "because he (i.e. the priest) is his," only that
in the latter case a pronoun would be expected: the commentators gene-
rally refer it to the succeeding jure, with this "right," which is his.
Canterus reads, quod majus est, i.e. than the Pontifex Maximus.

2 So the MS. reading tequalitas, which is retained by Hild. and Oehler ; all
other editions drop «— " that the quality of deed and doer might be one."

BOOK i. J A RNOB1 US AD VERS US GENTES. 43

share with the frailest being the ability to perform that which
you alone are able to do, is a proof of power supreme over
all, and holding in subjection the causes of all things, and the
natural laws of methods and of means.

52. Come, then, let some Magian Zoroaster1 arrive from
a remote part of the globe, crossing over the fiery zone,2 if we
believe Hermippus as an authority. Let these join him too
— that Bactrian, whose deeds Ctesias sets forth in the first
book of his History; the Armenian, grandson of Hosthanes;3
and Pamphilus, the intimate friend of Cyrus ; Apollonius,
Damigero, and Dardanus ; Velus, Julianus, and Basbulus ;
and if there be any other one who is supposed to have especial
powers and reputation in such magic arts. Let them grant
to one of the people to adapt the mouths of the dumb for the
purposes of speech, to unseal the ears of the deaf, to give the
natural powers of the eye to those born without sight, and
to restore feeling and life to bodies long cold in death. Or
if that is [too] difficult, and if they cannot impart to others

1 This passage has furnished occasion for much discussion as to text
and interpretation. In the text Orelli's punctuation has been follower!,
who regards Arnobius as mentioning four Zoroasters — the Assyrian or
Chaldaean, the Bactrian (cf. c. 5 of this book), the Armenian, and
finally the Pamphylian, or Pamphilos, who, according to Clem. Alex.
(Strom, v. p. 598), is referred to in Plato's Republic, Bk. x., under tlie
name Er ; Meursius and Salmasius, however, regarding the whole as
one sentence, consider that only three persons are so referred to, the
first being either Libyan or Bactrian, and the others as with Orelli.
To seek to determine which view is most plausible even, would be a
fruitless task, as will be evident on considering what is said in the index
under Zoroaster.

2 So Orelli, reading veniat qu-is su-per igneam zonam. LB. reads for
the second and third words, quse-so per — " let there come, I pray you,
through," etc., from the MS. quse super ; while Heraldus would change
the last three words into Azonaces, the name of the supposed teacher of
Zoroaster. By the " fiery zone" Salmasius would understand Libya ; but
the legends should be borne in mind which spoke of Zoroaster as having
shown himself to a wondering multitude from a hill blazing with fire,
that he might teach them new ceremonies of worship, or as being other-
wise distinguished in connection with fire.

3 So Stewechius, Orelli, and others, for the MS. Zostriani—" grandson
of Zostrianus," retained in the 1st ed. and LB.

44 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

the power to do such acts, let themselves perform them, and
with their own rites. Whatever noxious herbs the earth
brings forth from its bosom, whatever powers those muttered
words and accompanying spells contain — these let them add,
we envy them not ; [those] let them collect, we forbid them
not. We wish to make trial and to discover whether they
can effect, with the aid of their gods, what has often been
accomplished by unlearned Christians with a word only.

53. Cease in your ignorance to receive such great deeds
with abusive language, which will in no wise injure him who
did them, but which will bring danger to yourselves — danger,
I say, by no means small, but one dealing with matters of
great,1 aye, even the greatest importance, since beyond a doubt
the soul is a precious thing, and nothing can be found dearer
to a man than himself. There was nothing magical, as you
suppose, nothing human, delusive, or crafty in Christ ; no
deceit lurked in him,2 although you smile in derision, as your
wont is, and though you split with roars of laughter. He
was God on high, God in his inmost nature, God from
unknown realms, and was sent by the Ruler of all as a
Saviour God ; whom neither the sun himself, nor any stars,
if they have powers of perception, not the rulers and princes
of the world, nor, in fine, the great gods, or those who,
feigning themselves so, terrify the whole human race, were
able to know or to guess whence and who he was — and
naturally so. But3 when, freed from the body, which he
carried about as but a very small part of himself, he allowed
himself to be seen, and [let it be known] how great he was,
all the elements of the universe bewildered by the strange
events were thrown into confusion. An earthquake shook

1 So the edd., reading in rebus eximiis for the MS. exi-gu-is, which
•would, of course, give an opposite and wholly unsuitable meaning.

2 So generally, Heraldus having restored aditu-it in Cliristo from the
MS., which had omitted -it, for the reading of Gelenius, Canterus, and
Ursinus, delicti — "no deceit, no sin [was]," etc.

8 So emended by Salmasius, followed by most later edd. In the
earlier edd. the reading is et merito exutus a corpore (Salm. reading at
instead of a, and inserting a period after mer.*) — " and when rightly
freed from the body," etc.

BOOK i.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 45

the world, the sea was heaved up from its depths, the heaven
was shrouded in darkness, the sun's fiery blaze was checked,
and his heat became moderate \ for what else could occur
when he was discovered to be God who heretofore was
reckoned one of us ?

54. But you do not believe these things ; yet those who
witnessed their occurrence, and who saw them done before
their eyes — the very best vouchers and the most reliable
authorities — both believed them themselves, and transmitted
them to us who follow them to be believed with no scanty
measure of confidence. Who are these? you perhaps ask.
Tribes, peoples, nations, and that incredulous human race ;
but2 if the matter were not plain, and, as the saying is,
clearer than day itself, they would never grant their assent
with so ready belief to events of such a kind. But shall we
say that the men of that time were untrustworthy, false,
stupid, and brutish to such a degree that they pretended to
have seen what they never had seen, and that they put forth
under false evidence, or alleged with childish asseveration
things which never took place, and that when they were
able to live in harmony and to maintain friendly relations
with you, they wantonly incurred hatred, and were held in
execration ?

55. But if this record of events is false, as you say, how
comes it that in so short a time the whole world has been
filled with such a religion ? or how could nations dwelling
widely apart, and separated by climate and by the con-
vexities of heaven,3 unite in one conclusion? They have
been prevailed upon [say my opponents] by mere assertions,
been led into vain hopes ; and in their reckless madness
have chosen to incur voluntarily the risks of death, although
they had hitherto seen nothing of such a kind as could by

1 It may be instructive to notice how the simpler narrative of the
Gospels is amplified. Matthew (xxvii. 51) says that the earth trembled,
and Luke (xxiii. 45) that the sun was darkened; but they go no
further.

2 Or, " which if ... itself, would never," etc.

8 That is, by the climate and the inclination of the earth's surface.

46 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

its wonderful and strange character induce them to adopt
this manner of worship. Nay, because they saw all these
things to be done by [Christ] himself and by his apostles,
who being sent throughout the whole world carried with
them the blessings of the Father, which they dispensed in
benefiting1 as well the minds as the bodies of men ; over-
come by the force of the very truth itself they both devoted
themselves to God, and reckoned it as but a small sacrifice
to surrender their bodies to you and to give their flesh to
be mangled.

56. But our writers [we shall be told] have put forth
these statements with false effrontery; they have extolled2
small matters to an inordinate degree, and have magnified
trivial affairs with most pretentious boastfulness. And3
would that all things could have been reduced to writing, —
both those which were done by himself, and those which were
accomplished by his apostles with equal authority and power.
Such an assemblage of miracles, however, would make you
more incredulous ; and perhaps you might be able to discover
a passage from which* it would seem very probable, both that
additions were made to facts, and that falsehoods were inserted
in writings and commentaries. But in nations which were
unknown to the writers, and which themselves knew not the
use of letters, all that was done could not have been embraced
in the records or even have reached the ears of all men ; or,
if any were committed to written and connected narrative,
some insertions and additions would have been made by the
malevolence of the demons and of men like to them, whose

1 So the 1st ed., Ursinus, Elmenhorst, Orelli, and Hildebrand, read-
ing munerandis, which is found in the MS. in a later handwriting, for
the original reading of the MS. munera dis.

2 According to Rigaltius the MS. reads ista promiserunt in immensum —
" have put forth (i.e. exaggerated) these things to an immense degree
falsely, small matters and trivial affairs have magnified," etc.; while
by a later hand has been superscribed over in immensum, in ink of a
different colour, extulere — " have extolled."

3 So the MS., 1st ed., and Hildebrand, while all others read atqu-i —
" but."

4 So I.E., reading quo for the iis. quod.

BOOK i.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 47

care and study it is to obstruct l the progress of this truth :
there would have been some changes and mutilations of words
and of syllables, at once to mar the faith of the cautious and
to impair the moral effect of the deeds. But it will never avail
them that it be gathered from written testimony [only] who
and what Christ was ; for his cause has been put on such a
basis, that if what we say be admitted to be true, he is by
the confession of all proved to have been God.

57. You do not believe our writings, and we do not believe
yours. We devise falsehoods concerning Christ [you say] ;
and you put forth baseless and false statements concerning
your gods : for no god has descended from heaven, or in his
own person and life has sketched out your system, or in a
similar way thrown discredit on our system and our cere-
monies. These were written by men ; those, too, were
•written by men — set forth in human speech ; and whatever
you seek to say concerning our writers, remember that about
yours, too, you will find these things said with equal force.
What is contained in your writings you wish to be treated
as true ; those things, also, which are attested in our books,
you must of necessity confess to be true. You accuse our
system of falsehood ; we, too, accuse yours of falsehood. But
ours is more ancient, say you, therefore most credible and
trustworthy ; as if, indeed, antiquity were not the most fertile
source of errors, and did not herself put forth those things
which in discreditable fables have attached the utmost infamy
to the gods. For could not falsehoods have been both spoken
and believed ten thousand years ago, or is it not most pro-
bable that that which is near to our own time should be more
credible than that which is separated by a long term of
years ? For these of ours are brought forward on the faith
of witnesses, those of yours on the ground of opinions ; and
it is much more natural that there should be less invention
in matters of recent occurrence, than in those far removed
in the darkness of antiquity.

58. But they were written by unlearned and ignorant

1 So most edd., reading intercip-ere for the MS. intercipi — "it is that
the progress be obstructed," etc.

48 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

men, and should not therefore be readily believed. See that
this be not rather a stronger reason for believing that they
have not been adulterated by any false statements, but were
put forth by men of simple mind, who knew not how to
trick out their tales with meretricious ornaments. But the
language is mean and vulgar. For truth never seeks de-
ceitful polish, nor in that which is well ascertained and
certain does it allow itself to be led away into excessive pro-
lixity. Syllogisms, enthymemes, definitions, and all those
ornaments by which men seek to establish their statements,
aid those groping for the truth, but do not clearly mark its
great features. But he who really knows the subject under
discussion, neither defines, nor deduces, nor seeks the other
tricks of words by which an audience is wont to be taken in,
and to be beguiled into a forced assent to a proposition.

59. Your narratives, my opponent says, are overrun with
barbarisms and solecisms, and disfigured by monstrous blun-
ders. A censure, truly, which shows a childish and petty
spirit ; for if we allow that it is reasonable, let us cease to
use certain kinds of fruit because they grow with prickles on
them, and other growths useless for food, which on the one
hand cannot support us, and yet do- not on the other binder
us from enjoying that which specially excels, and which
nature has designed to be most wholesome for us. For how,
I pray you, does it interfere with or retard the compre-
hension [of a statement], whether anything be pronounced
smoothly1 or with uncouth roughness ? whether that have the
grave accent which ought to have the acute, or that have
the acute which ought to have the grave ? Or how is the
truth of a statement diminished, if an error is made in
number or case, in preposition, participle, or conjunction ?
Let that pomposity of style and strictly regulated diction be
reserved for public assemblies, for lawsuits, for the forum
and the courts of justice, and by all means be handed over
to those who, striving after the soothing influences of pleasant
sensations, bestow all their care upon splendour of language.

1 So Orelli and Hildcbrand, reading glabre from a conjecture of Gro-
tius, for the MS. grave.

BOOK i.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 49

[But] when we are discussing matters far removed from
mere display, we should consider what is said, not with what
charm it is said nor how it tickles the ears, but what benefits
it confers on the hearers, especially since we know that some
even who devoted themselves to philosophy, not only disre-
garded refinement of style, but also purposely adopted a
vulgar meanness when they might have spoken with greater
elegance and richness, lest forsooth they might impair the
stern gravity of speech and revel rather in the pretentious
show of the Sophists. For indeed it evidences a worthless
heart to seek enjoyment in matters of importance ; and when
you have to deal with those who are sick and diseased, to
pour into their ears dulcet sounds, not to apply a remedy to
their wounds. Yet, if you consider the true state of the
case, no language is naturally perfect, and in like manner
none is faulty. For what natural reason is there, or what
law written in the constitution of the world, that paries
should be called hie1 and sella hcec? — since neither have
they sex distinguished by male and female, nor can the most
learned man tell me what hie and hcec are, or why one of
them denotes the male sex while the other is applied to the
female. These conventionalities are man's, and certainly
are not indispensable to all persons for the use of forming
their language ; for panes might perhaps have been called
hcec, and sella hie, without any fault being found, if it had
been agreed upon at first that they should be so called, and
if this practice had been maintained by following generations
in their daily conversation. And yet, O you who charge
our writings with disgraceful blemishes, have you not these
solecisms in those most perfect and wonderful books of yours ?
Does not one of you make the plur. of uter, utria ? another
utres?2 [and do you not write] ccelus and ccelum, filus and
jilum, crocus and crocum, fretus and frelum ? Do you not
also say hoc pane and hie panis, hie sanguis and hoc sanguen ?
Are not candelabrum and jugulum in like manner written
jugulus and candelaber? For if each noun cannot have

1 i.e. that the one should be masculine, the other feminine.

8 i.e. does not one of you make the plural of uter masc., another neut. ?

ARNOB. D

50 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

more than one gender, and if the same word cannot be of
this gender and of that (for one gender cannot pass into
the other), he commits as great a blunder who utters mas-
culine genders under the laws of feminines, as he who
applies masculine articles to feminine genders. And yet we
see you using masculines as feminines, and feminines as mas-
culines, and those which you call neuter both in this way
and in that, without any distinction. Either, therefore, it is
no blunder to employ them indifferently, and [in that case]
it is vain for you to say that our works are disfigured with
monstrous solecisms ; or if the way in which each ought to
be employed is unalterably fixed, you also are involved in
similar errors, although you have on your side all the Epi-
cadi, Caesellii, Verrii, Scauri, and Nisi.

60. But, say my opponents, if Christ was God, why did
he appear in human shape, and why was he cut off by death
after the manner of men ? Could that power which is in-
visible, and which has no bodily substance, have come upon
earth and adapted itself to the world and mixed in human
society, otherwise than by taking to itself some covering of a
more solid substance, which might bear the gaze of the eyes,
and on which the look of the least observant might fix it-
self ? For what mortal is there who could have seen him,
who could have distinguished him, if he had decreed to come
upon the earth such as he is in his own primitive nature,
and such as he has chosen to be in his own proper character
and divinity? He took upon him, therefore, the form of
man; and under the guise of our race he imprisoned his
power, so that he could be seen and carefully regarded,
might speak and teach, and without encroaching on the
sovereignty and government of the King Supreme, might
carry out all those objects for the accomplishment of which
he had come into the world.

61. What, then, says [my opponent], could not the Supreme
Ruler have brought about those things which he had ordained
to be done in the world, without feigning himself a man ? If
it were necessary to do as you say, he perhaps would have
done so ; because it was not necessary, he acted otherwise.

BOOK i.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 51

The reasons why he chose to do it in this way, and did
not choose to do it in that, are unknown, being involved
in so great obscurity, and comprehensible by scarcely any ;
but these you might perhaps have understood if you were
not already prepared not to understand, and were not shaping
your course to brave unbelief, before that was explained to
you which you sought to know and to hear.

62. But [you will say] he was cut off by death as men
are. Not [Christ] himself ; for it is impossible either that
death should befall what is divine, or that that should waste
away and disappear in death which is one [in its substance],
and not compounded, nor formed by bringing together any
parts. Who, then [you ask], was seen hanging on the cross ?
Who dead? The human form,1 [I reply], which he had
put on,2 and which he bore about with him. It is a tale
passing belief, [you say], and wrapt in dark obscurity ; if
you will, it is not dark, and [is] established by a very close
analogy.3 If the Sibyl, when she was uttering and pouring
forth her prophecies and oracular responses, was filled, as you
say, with Apollo's power, had been cut down and slain by
impious robbers,4 would Apollo be said to have been slain in
her ? If Bacis,6 if Helenus, Marcius,6 and other soothsayers,
had been in like manner robbed of life and light when raving
as inspired, would any one say that those who, speaking by

1 So the MS., followed by Hildebrand and Oehler, reads and punctu-
ates quis mortuusf homo, for which all edd. read mortuus est? "Who
died?"

2 Here, as in the whole discussion in the second book on the origin
and nature of the soul, the opinions expressed are Gnostic, Cerinthus
saying more precisely that Christ having descended from heaven in the
form of a dove, dwelt in the body of Jesus during his life, but removed
from it before the crucifixion.

8 So the MS. by changing a single letter, with LB. and others, simili-
tudine proxim-a (MS. o) constitutum; while the first ed., Gelenius, Can-
terus, Ursinus, Orelli, and others, read -dini proxinie — " settled very
closely to analogy."

4 In the original latronibus; here, as in the next chapter, used loosely
to denote lawless men.

5 So emended by Mercerus for the MS. vatis.

6 So read in the MS.— not -tius, as in LB. and Orelli

03 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

their mouths, declared to inquirers what should be done,1 had
perished according to the conditions of human life? The
death of which you speak was [that] of the human body
which he had assumed,2 not his own — of that which was borne,
not of the bearer ; and not even this [death] would he 8 have
stooped to suffer, were it not that a matter of such import-
ance was to be dealt with, and the inscrutable plan of fate 4
brought to light in hidden mysteries.

63. What are these hidden and unseen mysteries, you will
say, which neither men can know, nor those even who are
called gods of the world can in any wise reach by fancy and
conjecture ; [which] none [can discover],5 except those whom
[Christ] himself has thought fit to bestow the blessing of so
great knowledge upon, and to lead into the secret recesses of
the inner treasury [of wisdom] ? Do you then see that if
he had determined that none should do him violence, he
should have striven to the utmost to keep off from him his
enemies, even by directing his power against them ? 6 Could
not he [then], who had restored their sight to the blind, make
[his enemies] blind if it were necessary ? Was it hard or
troublesome for him to make them weak, who [had given]
strength to the feeble ? Did he who bade 7 the lame walk,

1 Lit., " the ways of things" — vias rerum.

2 The MS. reads unintelligibly assumpti-o hominis fuit, which was,
however, retained in both Roman edd., although Ursinus suggested
the dropping of the o, which has been done by all later edd.

3 The MS. reads, quam nee ipsam perpeti succuluisset vis — " would his
might," i.e. "would he with his great power have stooped." Orelli
simply omits vis as Canterus, and seemingly the other later edd. do.

4 The MS. and 1st ed. read sati-s, which has clearly arisen from/ being
confounded with the old form of s.

5 The construction is a little involved, qu.se, nulli nee homines scire nee
ipsi qui appellantur dii mundi queunt — " which none, neither men can
know, nor those .... of the world can reach, except those whom," etc.

6 In the Latin, vel potestate inversa, which according to Oehler is the
US. reading, while Orelli speaks of it as an emendation of LB. (where
it is certainly found, but without any indication of its source), and with
most edd. reads universa — " by his universal power."

7 So the MS. according to Hildebrand, reading prsecipi-'bat. Most edd.,
however, following Gelenius, read faciebat — "made them lame."

BOOK i.] ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 53

not know how to take from them all power to move their
limbs,1 by making their sinews stiff ? 2 Would it have been
difficult for him who drew the dead from their tombs to in-
flict death on whom he would ? But because reason required
that those things which had been resolved on should be done
here also in the world itself, and in no other fashion than was
done, he, with gentleness passing understanding and belief,
regarding as but childish trifles the wrongs which men did
him, submitted to the violence of savage and most hardened
robbers;3 nor did he think it worth while to take account
of what their daring had aimed at, if he only showed to his
[disciples] what they were in duty bound to look for from
him. For when many things about the perils of souls,
many evils about their . . . . ; on the other hand, the intro-
ducer,4 the master and teacher directed his laws and ordi-
nances, that they might find their end in fitting duties ;5 did
he not destroy the arrogance of the proud? Did he not
quench the fires of lust ? Did he not check the craving of
greed 1 Did he not wrest the weapons from their hands,
and rend from them all the sources6 of every [form of]
corruption ? To conclude, was he not himself gentle, peace-

1 Lit., " to bind fast the motions of the members," adopting the read-
ing of most edd., molus alligare merribrorum (MS. c-al-igare).

2 The MS. reads nervorum duritia-m, for which Ursinus, with most edd.,
reads as above, merely dropping m ; Hildebrand and Oehler insert in,
and read, from a conjecture of Ursinus adopted by Elmenhorst, c-ol-ligare
— " to bind into stiffness."

3 Ursinus suggested di- (" most terrible ") for the MS. durissimis.

4 So the MS. reading, multa mala de illarum contra insinuator (mala is
perhaps in the abl., agreeing with a lost word), which has been regarded
by Heraldus and Stewechius, followed by Orelli, as mutilated, and is so
read in the first ed., and by Ursinus and LB. The passage is in all
cases left obscure and doubtful, and we may therefore be excused dis-
cussing its meaning here.

5 Lit., " to the ends of fitting duties."

6 In the original, seminaria abscidit, — the former word used of nur-
series for plants, while the latter may be either as above (from abscindo),
or may mean "cut off" (from dbscido) ;.but in both cases the gene-
ral meaning is the same, and the metaphor is in either slightly con-
fused.

54 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

ful, easily approached, friendly when addressed ?l Did he
not, grieving at men's miseries, pitying with his unexampled
benevolence all in any wise afflicted with troubles and bodily
ills,2 bring them back and restore them to soundness ?

64. What, then, constrains you, what excites you to revile,
to rail at, to hate implacably him whom no man 3 can accuse
of any crime ?4 Tyrants and your kings, who, putting away
[all] fear of the gods, plunder and pillage the treasuries of
temples; who by proscription, banishment,5 and slaughter,
strip the state of its nobles ; who, with licentious violence,
undermine and wrest away the chastity of matrons and
maidens, — [these men] you name indigites and divi; and
you worship with couches, altars, temples, and other ser-
eice, and by celebrating their games and birthdays, those
whom it was fitting that you should assail with keenest6
hatred. And all those, too, who by writing books assail in
many forms with biting reproaches public manners ; who
censure, brand, and tear in pieces your luxurious habits and
lives ; who carry down to posterity evil reports of their own
times7 in their enduring writings; who [seek to] persuade
[men] that the rights of marriage should be held in common ; 8
who lie with boys, beautiful, lustful-, naked ; who declare that

1 Lit., "familiar to be accosted," — the supine, as in the preceding clause.

* So the edd., reading corporalibus affectos malis, but the MS. inserts
after mails the word morbis (" with evil bodily diseases") ; but accord-
ing to Hildebrand this word is marked as spurious.

3 So the edd., reading nemo h-om-i-n-um, except Hildebrand and
Oehler, who retain the MS. om-n-i-um — " no one of aU."

4 John viii. 46 :" Which of you convinceth me of sin ? "

fi So Heraldus and LB., followed by later edd., reading exiliis for the
MS. ex-uis, for which Gelenius, Canterus, and Ursinus read et suis —
" and by their slaughters."

6 Here, as frequently in Arnobius, the comparative is used instead of
the superlative.

7 " To posterity evil reports of their own time " — SMI temporis posteris
notas — so emended by Ursinus, followed by Orelli and Hildebrand, for
the MS. in temporis posteri-s, retained by LB., and with the omission of s in
the first ed. ; but this requires our looking on the passage as defective.

8 The reference is clearly to the well-known passage in Plato's Republic^
st. p. 457.

BOOK i.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 55

you are beasts, runaways, exiles, and mad and frantic slaves
of the most worthless character, — [all these] with wonder and
applause you exalt to the stars of heaven, you place in the
shrines of your libraries, you present with chariots and statues,
and as much as in you lies, gift with a kind of immortality,
as it were, by the witness which immortal titles bear to them.
Christ alone you would tear in pieces,1 you would rend asunder,
if you could [do so to] a god ; nay, [him alone] you would,
were it allowed, gnaw with bloody mouths, and break his bones
in pieces, and devour him like beasts of the field. For what
that he has done, tell, I pray you, for what crime?2 What
has he done to turn aside the course of justice, and rouse
you to hatred made fierce by maddening torments ? [Is it]
because he declared that he was sent by the only [true] King
[to be] your soul's guardian, and to bring to you the immor-
tality which you believe that you [already] possess, relying
on the assertions of a few men ? But [even] if you were
assured that he spoke falsely, that he even held out hopes
without the slightest foundation, not even in this case do I
see [any] reason that you should hate [and] condemn him
with bitter reproaches. Nay, if you were kind and gentle in
spirit, you ought to esteem him even for this alone, that he
promised to you things which you might well wish and hope
for ; that he was the bearer of good news ; that his message
was such as to trouble no one's mind, nay, rather to fill [all]
with less anxious expectation.8

65. Oh ungrateful and impious age, prepared* for its own

1 So Gelenius, LB., and Orelli, reading con-v-dl-e-re for the MS. con-
p-ell-a-re, " to accost " or " abuse," which is out of place here. Canterus
suggested com-p-il-are, " to plunder," which also occurs in the sense
" to cudgel."

2 Supply, "do you pursue him so fiercely?"

3 These words are followed in the edition of Gelenius by ch. 2-5 of
the second book, seemingly without any mark to denote transposition ;
while Ursinus inserted the same chapters — beginning, however, with the
last sentence of the first chapter (read as mentioned in the note on it) —
but prefixed an asterisk, to mark a departure from the order of the MS.
The later editors have not adopted either change.

* So Ursinus suggested in the margin, followed by LB. and Orelli,

56 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK i.

destruction by its extraordinary obstinacy! If there had
come to you a physician from lands far distant and unknown
to you before, offering some medicine to keep off from you
altogether every kind of disease and sickness, would you not
all eagerly hasten to [him]? Would you not with every
kind of flattery and honour receive him into your houses, and
treat him kindly ? Would you not wish that that kind of
medicine should be quite reliable, should be genuine, which
promised that even to the utmost limits of life you should be
free from such countless bodily distresses ? And though it
were a doubtful matter, you would yet entrust yourselves [to
him] ; nor would you hesitate to drink the unknown draught,
incited by the hope of health set before you and by the
love of safety.1 Christ shone out and appeared to tell us
news of the utmost importance, bringing an omen of pro-
sperity, and a message of safety to those who believe. What,
I pray you, means2 this cruelty, what such barbarity, nay
rather, to speak more truly, scornful3 pride, not only to
harass the messenger and bearer of so great a gift with
taunting words ; but even to assail him with fierce hostility,
and with all the weapons which can be showered upon him,
and [with all modes of] destruction.? Are his words displeas-
ing, and are you offended when you hear them ? Count them
as [but] a soothsayer's empty tales. Does he speak very
stupidly, and promise foolish gifts? Laugh with scorn as
wise men, and leave [him in] his folly* to be tossed about
among his errors. What means this fierceness (to repeat
what has been said more than once) ; what a passion, so
murderous? to declare implacable hostility towards one who

reading in privatam perniciem p-a-r-atum for the MS. p-r-iv-atum, which
is clearly derived from the preceding privatam, but is, though unintel-
ligible also, retained in the two Roman edd. The conclusion of the
sentence is, literally, "obstinacy of spirit."

1 In the original, ?pe salutis proposita atque amore incolumitatis.

2 Lit., " is "—est.

3 So all the edd., reading fastidi-os-um supercilium, which Crusius says
the MS. reads with os omitted, i.e. " pride, scorn."

4 So the edd., reading fatuito-tem, for the MS. fatuita-n-tem, which
may, however, point to a verb not found elsewhere.

BOOK i.] AENOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 57

has done nothing to deserve it at your hands ; to wish, if it
were allowed you, to tear him limb from limb, who not only did
no man any harm, but with uniform kindness1 told his enemies
what salvation was being brought to them from God Supreme,
what must be done that they might escape destruction and
obtain an immortality which they knew not of ? And when
the strange and unheard-of things which were held out
staggered the minds of those who heard him, and made them
hesitate to believe, [though] master of every power and
destroyer of death itself he suffered his human form to be
slain, that from the result2 they might know that the hopes
were safe which they had long entertained about the soul's
salvation, and that in no other way could they avoid the
danger of death.

1 i.e. to friends and foes alike. The MS. reads sequaliter benignus hosti-
bus dicere, which is retained by Orelli, supposing an ellipsis offuerit, i.e.
" [he was] kind to say," which might be received ; but it is more natural
to suppose that -t has dropped off, and read diceret. as above, with
the two Roman editions and LB. Gelenius, followed by Ursinus,
emended omnibus docuerit — " with uniform kindness taught to all." It
may be well to give here an instance of the very insufficient grounds on
which supposed references to Scripture are sometimes based. Orelli
considers that Arnobius here refers (yidetur respexisse, he says) to Col. i.
21, 22, " You, that were sometimes alienated and enemies in mind by
wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh
through death," to which, though the words which follow might indeed
be thought to have a very distant resemblance, they can in no way be
shown to refer.

2 i.e. from his resurrection, which showed that death's power v;as»
broken by him.

BOOK II.

ARGUMENT.

THE question is again asked, Why is Christ so bitterly hated, while it
cannot be said that he ever injured any one (1) ? Because, an opponent
is supposed to reply, he drove religion from the earth by withholding
men from worshipping the gods. In this, however, it is shown that he
did not assail, but built up religion, as he taught men to worship the
creator and source of all things, God supreme, the worship of whom is
surely the truest religion (2, 3). It is declared to be mere folly in the
heathen to disbelieve Christ's message, for the future alone can prove or
disprove the truth of what is foretold; but when there are the two
prospects, that if Christ's words are false, his followers lose nothing
more than others, but that, on the other hand, if he spoke truly, those
who refuse to believe in him suffer an infinite loss, it is more rational
to choose the course which tends to no evil and may lead to blessing,
rather than that which it is certain leads to no good, and may bring us
to terrible woe (4, 5). Is the truth of Christianity not manifested, he
goes on to ask, in the readiness with which it has been received by men
of every class in all parts of the world, and by the noble constancy
with which so many have endured suffering even to death, rather than
abandon or dishonour it (5) ? And if, as was often the case, any one
should say that there were indeed many who received Christ's gospel, but
that these were silly and stupid people, Arnobius reminds him that learn-
ing and grammatical knowledge alone do not fit a man to decide between
truth and falsehood, to say what may and what cannot take place (6) ;
and this is shown by the uncertainty and confusion which surround even
those matters which force themselves on our notice every day, such as
the nature and origin of man, the end of his being, the mode in which he
was quickened into life, and many other similar questions (7). Moreover,
the heathen laughed at the faith of the Christians ; but in doing so,
Arnobius asks, did they not expose themselves to ridicule ? For does not
the whole conduct of life depend on the belief that the end will corre-
spond to our aims and actions (8) ? Again, most men put faith in one
or other of the leading philosophers (9) ; and these, in turn, trust their
own fancies, and put faith in their own theories, so that faith is common
to all men alike (10). And if the heathen put faith in the philosophers,
the Christians have no less reason to put faith in Christ ; while, if a
comparison be entered into, no other can point to such wonderful powers
and such marvellous deeds as are recorded of him (11). Not by such

BOOK ii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 59

subtle quibbling as men brought against it did the new religion make its
way, but by the marvellous and unheard-of miracles which attested its
truth, so that it won followers among all tribes on the face of the earth;
and if any man was ignorant of these facts, it was because he had not
chosen to know them, and had suffered the truth to be obscured by
those interested in upholding error (12). Arnobius goes on to show
that many Christian doctrines which were ridiculed as such by the
heathen, were held by the philosophers also ; referring more particularly
to the worship of one God, the resurrection of the dead (13), and the
quenchless fires of punishment, from which he takes occasion to point
out that man's true death comes not at, but after the soul's separation
from the body, and to discuss the nature of the soul (14). The soul is
not, he maintains, immortal in itself, or of divine origin — if it were born
of God, men would be pure and holy, and of one opinion (15)— but has
been made vicious and sinful by causes to be found in the world ; while,
if it had been made by the supreme God, how could his work have been
marred by that which was less powerful (16) ? Arnobius next en-
deavours to show that we are in nothing distinguished from the brutes :
so far as body, the maintenance of life, and the reproduction of the race
are concerned, we are found to be alike, while the heathen are reminded
of the doctrine of the transmigration of souls (16) ; and if stress is laid
on man's reason and intelligence as a distinctive characteristic, it is first
suggested that all men do not act rationally, and the question is then
asked, What is the reason which man possesses, and not the beasts (17)?
Man's practical skill is no proof of superior reason, for its exercise is
necessitated by his excessive poverty ; and it is, moreover, not a faculty
native in the soul, but one acquired only after long years under the
pressure of necessity (18). The arts, grammar, music, oratory, and
geometry are similarly noticed, and the doctrine of reminiscence re-
jected (19). Arnobius next supposes a boy to be brought up wholly
apart from human society, and seeks to establish his position by the
supposed results of imaginary questions put to this hypothetical being
(20-23) ; and then goes on to attack the contrary opinions which Plato
had sought to establish in a somewhat similar way, by challenging him
to question the boy just imagined, who is, of course, found to be exactly
what was intended (24) ; and thus gives his creator a triumph, by show-
ing conclusively that man untaught is ignorant as a stock or stone, while
on being taught other creatures can learn also — the ox and ass to grind
and plough, the horse to run in harness, and the like (25). Pursuing
the same subject, it is argued that if the soul loses its former knowledge
on uniting with the body, it cannot be incorporeal, and cannot therefore
be immortal (26, 27) ; and further, that if the soul's former knowledge
were lost through the influence of the body, the knowledge acquired in
this life should in like manner be lost (28). Those who assert the soul's
immortality are accused of teaching that which will add to the wicked«

60 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK IT.

ness of men : for how shall any one be restrained even by the fear of a
higher power, who is persuaded that his life cannot be cut short by any
power (29)? while if he is threatened with the punishments of the
infernal regions, he will laugh them to scorn, knowing that what is in-
corruptible cannot be affected by mere bodily ills. If the soul is im-
mortal, Arnobius affirms there is no need or ground for philosophy, that
is, ethics, whose purpose is to raise man above the brutish pleasures of
sense to a virtuous life : for why should not a soul which cannot perish
give itself up to any pleasures ? while if the soul is mortal, philosophy is
in precisely the same position, aiming to do for man what will not profit
him if done (30). The soul, he concludes, is neither mortal nor im-
mortal (31) ; and there is therefore good reason that those who have no
confidence in their power to help themselves, should welcome a saviour
in one more powerful (32, 33). Christians and heathen alike, then,
look for the deliverance of their souk from death ; and neither party,
therefore, has any reason to mock the other in this (33, 34). Such, too,
is the condition of all spirits which are supposed to exist (35) ; and it
is only through God's goodness that any spirit becomes immortal (36).
It is next argued at great length, and with some prolixity, that the soul
is not sprung from God, on the ground of its vicious and imperfect
nature (37-46) ; and it is then shown that, in denying the soul's divine
origin on this ground, we are acting most reasonably, although we cannot
say what its real origin is (47, 48) ; while if any one attempts to show
that the soul is not imperfect and polluted by sin by pointing to good
and upright men, he is reminded that the whole race cannot taVe its
character from a few individual members, and that these men were not
so naturally (49, 50). There is nothing ridiculous, Arnobius goes on to
say, in confessing ignorance of such matters ; and the preceding state-
ments are to a certain extent supported by Plato's authority, in so far as
he separates the formation of man's soul from the divine acts (51, 52).
But if this belief be mistaken, what harm does it do to others (53) ?
From this there naturally follows a discussion of the origin of evil, the
existence of which cannot be denied, though its cause is beyond our
knowledge ; it is enough to know that all God does is good (54, 55).
How idle a task it would be to attempt the solution of such problems, is
seen when we consider how diverse are the results already arrived at,
and that each is supported on plausible grounds (56, 57) ; which clearly
shows that man's curiosity cannot be certainly satisfied, and that one
man cannot hope to win general assent to his opinions (57). Arnobius
now proposes to his opponents a series of questions as to men and things,
after answering which they may with more reason taunt him with his
ignorance of the soul's origin (58, 59) ; and says that, because of the
vanity of all these inquiries, Christ had commanded them to be laid
aside, and men to strive after the knowledge of God (60), and the
deliverance of their souls from the evils which otherwise await them

BOOK ii.] A EN OBI US AD VERS US GENTES. 6 1

(61), — a task to be accomplished only through the aid of Him who is
all-powerful (62). The condition of those who lived before Christ
came to earth is to be learned from his teaching (63) ; and his bounty
extends to all, though all do not accept it (64) ; for to compel those to
turn to him who will not come, would be to use violence, not to show
mercy (65). No purity therefore, or holiness, can save the man who
refuses to accept Christ as his Saviour (66). Arnobius next deals with
the objection that Christianity is a thing of yesterday, for which it
would be absurd to give up the more ancient religions, by asking if
it is thus that we look upon the various improvements which have been
suggested from time to time by the increase of knowledge and wisdom
(66-68). All things, moreover, have had a beginning — philosophy,
medicine, music, and the rest (69), even the gods themselves (70) ; but
all this is wholly beside the mark, for the truth of a religion depends
not on its age, but on its divine origin. And if, a few hundred years
before, there was no Christianity, the gods were in like manner unknown
at a still earlier period (71). But Christianity worships that which was
before all, the eternal God, although late in its worship, because there
was not the needed revelation sooner (72). Arnobius again asserts
that Christianity does not stand alone, for it was at a comparatively late
time that the worship of Serapis and Isis, and of others, was introduced ;
and so Christianity too had sprung up but lately, because it was only
then that its teacher had appeared (73) : and having considered why
Christ was so late in appearing among men (74, 75), and why Christians
are allowed to undergo such suffering and trial on earth (76, 77), he
earnestly exhorts all to see to the safety of their souls, and flee for
salvation to God, seeing that such terrible dangers threaten us, lest
the last day come upon us, and we be found in the jaws of death (78).1

SERE, if any means could be found, I should
wish to converse thus with all those who
hate the name of Christ, turning aside for
a little from the defence primarily set up: —
If you think it no dishonour to answer when asked a ques-

1 There has been much confusion in dealing with the first seven
chapters of this book, owing to the leaves of the MS. having been
arranged in wrong order, as was pointed out at an early period by some
one who noted on the margin that there was some transposition. To this
circumstance, however, Oehler alone seems to have called attention ; but
the corruption was so manifest, that the various editors gave themselves
full liberty to re-arrange and dispose the text more correctly. The first
leaf of the MS. concludes with the words sine ullius personal discriminibus
inrogavit, " without any distinction of person," and is followed by one

62 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boos IL

tion, explain to us and say what is the cause, what the
reason, that you pursue Christ with so bitter hostility? or
what offences you remember which he did, that at the
mention of his name you are roused to bursts of mad and
savage fury ? l Did he ever, in claiming for himself power as
king, fill the whole world with bands of the fiercest soldiers ;
and of nations at peace from the beginning, did he destroy
and put an end to some, [and] compel others to submit to his
yoke and serve him ? Did he ever, excited by grasping 2
avarice, claim as his own by right all that wealth to have
abundance of which men strive eagerly? Did he ever,
transported with lustful passions, break down by force the
barriers of purity, or stealthily lie in wait for other men's
wives? Did he ever, puffed up with haughty arrogance, in-
flict at random injuries and insults, without any distinction of
persons? (B) And if he was not worthy that you should listen
to and believe [him, yet] he should not have been despised
by you even on this account, that he showed to you things
concerning your salvation, that he prepared for you a path3 to

which begins with the words (A, end of c. 5) et non omnium virtutum,
"and (not) by an eager longing," and ends tanta experiatur examina,
" undergoes such countless ills " (middle of c. 7). The third and fourth
leaves begin with the words (B, end of'c. 1) utrum in cunctos . . .
amoverit f qui si dignos, " Now if he was not worthy " (see notes), and
run on to end of c. 5, quadam dulcedine, " by some charm ; " while the
fifth (C, middle of c. 7) begins atque ne (or utrumne) ilium, " whether
the earth," and there is no further difficulty. This order is retained in
the first ed., and also by Hildebrand, who supposes three lacunae at A,
B, and C, to account for the abruptness and want of connection ; but it
is at once seen that, on changing the order of the leaves, so that they
shall run BAG, the argument and sense are perfectly restored. This
arrangement seems to have been first adopted in LB., and is followed
by the later editors, with the exception of Hildebrand.

1 Lit., "boil up with the ardours of furious spirits."

2 Lit., " by the heats of."

8 So Meursius, reading a- for the MS. o-ptaret, which is retained by
LB., Orelli, and others. The MS. reading is explained, along with the
next words vota immortalitatis, by Orelli as meaning " sought by his
prayers," with reference to John xvii. 24, in which he is clearly mis-
taken. Heraldus conjectures p-o-r-ta-s a-p-er-taret, "opened paths . . .
and the gates of immortality."

BooKn.] ARNOB1US ADVERSUS GENTES. 63

heaven, and the immortality for which you long; although1 he
neither extended the light of life to all, nor delivered [all] from
the danger which threatens them through their ignorance.2

2. But indeed, [some one will say], he deserved our hatred
because he has driven religion3 from the world, because he
has kept men back from seeking to honour the gods.4
Is he then denounced as the destroyer of religion and pro-
moter of impiety, who brought true religion into the world,
who opened the gates of piety to men blind and verily
living in impiety, and pointed out to whom they should bow
themselves? Or is there any truer religion — [one] more
serviceable,5 powerful, [and] right — than to have learned to
know the supreme God, to know [how] to pray to God
supreme, who alone is the source and fountain of all good,
the creator,6 founder, and framer of all that endures, by whom

1 The words which follow, ut non in cunctos, etc., have been thus trans-
posed by Heraldus, followed by later editors ; but formerly they pre-
ceded the rest of the sentence, and, according to Oehler, the MS. gives
utrum, thus : " [You ask] whether he has both extended to all ...
ignorance ? who, if he was not," etc. Cf. p. 55, note 3.

2 So the MS., reading periculum i-g-n-ora-tionis, for which Meursius
suggests i-n-teri-tionis — " danger of destruction."

8 PL

4 This seems the true rationale of the sentence, viewed in relation to
the context. Immediately before, Arnobius suggests that the hatred of
Christ by the heathen is unjustifiable, because they had suffered nothing
at his hands ; now an opponent is supposed to rejoin, " But he has de-
served our hatred by assailing our religion." The introductory particles
at enim fully bear this out, from their being regularly used to introduce
a rejoinder. Still, by Orelli and other editors the sentence is regarded
as interrogative, and in that case would be, " Has he indeed merited our
hatred by driving out," etc., which, however, not merely breaks away
from what precedes, but also makes the next sentence somewhat lame.
The older editors, too, read it without any mark of interrogation.

5 i.e., according to Orelli, to the wants of men ; but possibly it may
here have the subjective meaning of " more full of service," i.e. to God.

6 So the MS., reading perpetuarum pater, fun dator, conditor rerum, but
all the editions pa-ri-ter, " alike," which has helped to lead Orelli astray.
He suggests etfons est perpetu-us pariter, etc., " perpetual fountain, . . .
of all things alike the founder and framer." It has been also proposed
by Oehler (to get rid of the difficulty felt here) to transfer per metathesin,
the idea of " enduring" to God ; but the reference is surely quite clear,

64 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

all things on earth and all in heaven are quickened, and filled
with the stir of life, and without whom there would assuredly
be nothing to bear any name, and [have any] substance ? But
perhaps you doubt whether there is that ruler of whom we speak,
and rather [incline to] believe in the existence of Apollo, Diana,
Mercury, Mars. Give a true judgment;1 and, looking round
on all these things which we see, [any one] will rather doubt
whether [all] the other gods exist, than hesitate with regard to
the God whom we all know by nature, whether when we cry
out, O God, or when we make God the witness of wicked
[deeds],2 and raise our face to heaven as though he saw us.

3. But he did not permit men to make supplication to the
lesser gods. Do you, then, know who are, or where are the
lesser gods ? Has mistrust of them, or the way in which they
were mentioned, ever touched you, so that you are justly indig-
nant that their worship has been done away with and deprived
of all honour ? 3 But if haughtiness of mind and arrogance,4
as it is called by the Greeks, did not stand in your way and
hinder you, you might long ago have been able to understand
what he forbade to be done, or wherefore; within what limits
he would have true religion lie;5 what danger arose to you from
that which you thought obedience; or from what evils you
would escape if you broke away from your dangerous delusion.

viewed as a distinction between the results of God's working and that
of all other beings.

1 So the MS. and almost all edd., reading da verum judicium, for which
Heraldus suggested da naturse, or verum animas judicium, " give the
judgment of nature," or " the true judgment of the soul," as if appeal
were made to the inner sense ; but in his later observations he pro-
posed da puerum judicem, " give a boy as judge," which is adopted by
Orelli. Meursius, merely transposing d-a, reads much more naturally ad
— " at a true judgment."

2 The MS. reading is ilium testem d-e-um constituimus improb-arum,
retained in the edd. with the change of -arum into -orum. Perhaps for
deum should be read r-e-r-um, " make him witness of wicked things."
With this passage compare iii. 31-33.

8 It seems necessary for the sake of the argument to read this inter-
rogatively, but in all the edd. the sentence ends without any mark of
interrogation.

4 Typhus— Tvtfsos. 6 Lit., " he chose ... to stand."

BOOK ii.] AENOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 65

4. But all these things will be more clearly and distinctly
noticed when we have proceeded further. For we shall
show that Christ did not teach the nations impiety, but
delivered ignorant and wretched men from those who most
wickedly wronged them.1 We do not believe, you say, that
what he says is true. What, then ? Have you no doubt as
to the things which2 you say are not true, while, as they are
[only] at hand, and not yet disclosed,3 they can by no means
be disproved? But he, too, does not prove what he pro-
mises. It is so; for, as I said, there can be no proof of
[things still in] the future. Since, then, the nature of the
future is such that it cannot be grasped and comprehended
by any anticipation,4 is it not more rational,5 of two things
uncertain and hanging in doubtful suspense, rather to believe
that which carries [with it] some hopes, than that which
[brings] none at all? For in the one case there is no
danger, if that which is said to be at hand should prove
vain and groundless ; in the other there is the greatest loss,
even6 the loss of salvation, if, when the time has come, it
be shown that there was nothing false [in what was de-
clared].7

5. What say you, O ignorant ones, for whom we might
well weep and be sad ? 8 Are you so void of fear that these

1 Lit., " the ignorance of wretched men from the worst robbers,"
i.e. the false prophets and teachers, who made a prey of the ignorant
and credulous. Cf. p. 51, n. 4.

3 Lit., " Are [the things] clear with you which," etc.

3 So the MS., followed by both Roman edd., Hildebrand and Oehler,
reading passa, which Cujacius (referring it to patior, as the editors seem
to have done generally) would explain as meaning " past," while in all
other editions cassa, " vain," is read.

4 Lit., " the touching of no anticipation."
6 Lit., " purer reasoning."

6 Lit., " that is." This clause Meursius rejects as a gloss.

7 i.e. If you believe Christ's promises, your belief makes you lose
nothing should it prove groundless ; but if you disbelieve them, then
the consequences to you will be terrible if they are sure. This would
seem too clear to need remark, were it not for the confusion of Orelli
in particular as to the meaning of the passage.

8 Lit., " most worthy even of weeping and pity."

A KNOB. E

66 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

things may be true which are despised by you and turned to
ridicule ? and do you not consider with yourselves at least,
in your secret thoughts, lest that which to-day with perverse
obstinacy you refuse to believe, time may too late show to
be true,1 and ceaseless remorse punish [you]? Do not even
these proofs at least give you faith to believe,2 [viz.] that
already, in so short and brief a time, the oaths of this vast
army have spread abroad over all the earth? that already
there is no nation so rude and fierce that it has not, changed
by his love, subdued its fierceness, and, with tranquillity
hitherto unknown, become mild in disposition ? 8 that [men]
endowed with so great abilities, orators, critics, rhetoricians,
lawyers, and physicians, those, too, who pry into the myste-
ries of philosophy, seek to learn these things, despising those
in which but now they trusted ? that slaves choose to be tor-
tured by their masters as they please, wives to be divorced,
children to be disinherited by their parents, rather than be
unfaithful to Christ and cast off the oaths of the warfare of
salvation ? that although so terrible punishments have been
denounced by you against those who follow the precepts of
this religion, it4 increases [even] more, and a great host
strives more boldly against all threats and the terrors which
would keep it back, and is roused to zealous faith by the
very attempt to hinder it? Do you indeed believe that
these things happen idly and at random ? that these feelings
are adopted on being met with by chance ?5 Is not this, then,
sacred and divine ? Or [do you believe] that, without God['s
grace], their minds are so changed, that although murderous
hooks and other tortures without number threaten, as we said,
those who shall believe, they receive the grounds of faith

1 Redarguat. This sense is not recognised by Riddle and White, and
would therefore seem to be, if not unique, at least extremely rare. The
derivative redargutio, however, is in late Latin used for " demonstra-
tion," and this is evidently the meaning here.

2 Fidem vdbis faciunt argumenta credendi. Heraldus, joining the two
last words, naturally regards them as a gloss from the margin ; but read
as above, joining the first and last, there is nothing out of place.

3 Lit., " tranquillity being assumed, passed to placid feelings."

4 Res, " the thing." « Lit., " on chance encounters."

BOOK IL] A KNOB1 US AD VERS US GENTES. 67

with which they have become acquainted,1 as if carried away
(A) by some charm, and by an eager longing for all the virtues,2
and prefer the friendship of Christ to all that is in the world ?3
6. But perhaps those seem to you weak-minded and silly,
who even now are uniting all over the world, and joining
together to assent with that readiness of belief [at which
you mock].4 What, then? Do you alone, imbued5 with
the true power of wisdom and understanding, see something
wholly different6 and profound? Do you alone perceive
that all these things are trifles ? you alone, that those things
are mere words and childish absurdities which we declare
[are] about to come to us from the supreme Ruler ? Whence,
pray, has so much wisdom been given to you ? whence so

1 Rationes cognitas. There is some difficulty as to the meaning of
these words, but it seems best to refer them to the argumenta credendi
(beginning of chapter, " do not even these proofs "), and render as above.
Hildebrand, however, reads tortwnes, " they accept the tortures which
they know will befall them."

2 The MS. reads et non omnium, " and by a love not of all the virtues,"
changed in most edd. as above into atque omnium, while Oehler pro-
poses et novo omnium, " and by fresh love of all," etc. It will be remem-
bered that the transposition of leaves in the MS. (note on ii. 1) occurs
here, and this seems to account for the arbitrary reading of Gelenius,
which has no MS. authority whatever, but was added by himself when
transposing these chapters to the first book (cf . p. 55, n. 4), atque nectare
ebrii cuncta contemnant — " As if intoxicated with a certain sweetness and
nectar, they despise all things." The same circumstance has made the
restoration of the passage by Canterus a connecting of fragments of
widely separated sentences and arguments.

8 Lit., " all the things of the world." Here the argument breaks off,
and passes into a new phase, but Orelli includes the next sentence also
in the fifth chapter.

4 Lit., " to the assent of that credulity."

6 So the MS., reading conditi vi meru, for which Orelli would read
with Oudendorp, conditas — "by the pure force of recondite wisdom."
The MS., however, is supported by the similar phrase in the beginning
of c. 8, where tincti is used.

6 So the MS., reading aliud, for which Stewechius, adopting a sugges-
tion of Canterus, conjectures, altius et profnndius — " something deeper
and more profound." Others propose readings further removed from
the text; while Obbarius, retaining the MS. reading, explains it as "not
common."

68 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

much subtlety and wit? Or from what scientific training
have you been able to gain so much wisdom, to derive so much
foresight ? Because you are skilled in declining verbs and
nouns by cases and tenses, [and] 1 in avoiding barbarous
words and expressions ; because you have learned either to
express yourselves in2 harmonious, and orderly, and fitly-
disposed language, or to know when it is rude and unpolished ;3
because you have stamped on your memory the Fornix of
Lucilius,4 and Marsyas of Pomponius ; because [you know]
what the issues to be proposed in lawsuits are, how many
kinds of cases there are, how many ways of pleading, what
the genus is, what the species, by what methods an opposite
is distinguished from a contrary, — do you therefore think
that you know what is false, what true, what can or cannot
be done, what is the nature of the lowest and highest ? Have
the well-known words never rung in5 your ears, that the
wisdom of man is foolishness with God ?

7. In the first place, you yourselves, too,6 see clearly that,

1 Lit., " because [you are," etc.].

2 Lit., " either yourselves to utter," etc.

8 Incomptus, for which Heraldus would read inconditus, as in opposi-
tion to " harmonious." This is, however,, unnecessary, as the clause is
evidently opposed to the whole of the preceding one.

4 No trace of either of these works has coine down to us, and there-
fore, though there has been abundance of conjecture, we can reach no
satisfactory conclusion about them. It seems most natural to suppose
the former to be probably part of the lost satires of Lucilius, which had
dealt with obscene matters, and the author of the latter to be the Atel-
lane poet of Bononia. As to this there has been some discussion ; but,
in our utter ignorance of the work itself, it is as well to allow that we
must remain ignorant of its author also. The scope of both works is
suggested clearly enough by their titles — the statue of Marsyas in the
forum overlooking nightly licentious orgies; and their mention seems
intended to suggest a covert argument against the heathen, in the im-
plied indecency of the knowledge on which they prided themselves. For
Fornicem Lucilianum (MS. Lucialinuni) Meursius reads decilianum.

6 Lit., " Has that [thing] published never struck," etc. There is
clearly a reference to 1 Cor. iii. 19, " the wisdom of this world." The
argument breaks off here, and is taken up from a different point in the
next sentence, which is included, however, in this chapter by Orelli.

' So Gelenius, followed by Canterus and Orelli, reading primum el

BOOK n.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 69

if you ever discuss obscure subjects, and seek to lay bare the
mysteries of nature, on the one hand you do not know the
very things which you speak of, which you affirm, which
you uphold very often with especial zeal, and that each one
defends with obstinate resistance his own suppositions as
though they were proved and ascertained [truths]. For how
can we of ourselves know whether we1 perceive the truth,
even if all ages be employed in seeking out knowledge — [we]
whom some envious power2 brought forth, and formed so
ignorant and proud, that, although we know nothing at all,
we yet deceive ourselves, and are uplifted by pride and
arrogance so as to suppose ourselves possessed of knowledge ?
For, to pass by divine things, and those plunged in natural
obscurity, can any man explain that which in the Phsedrus3
the well-known Socrates cannot comprehend — what man is,
or whence he is, uncertain, changeable, deceitful, manifold,
of many kinds ? for what purposes he was produced? by
whose ingenuity he was devised ? what he does in the world ?
(C) why he undergoes such countless ills ? whether the earth
gave life to him as to worms and mice, being affected with
decay through the action of some moisture ;4 or whether he

ipsi, by rejecting one word of the MS. (et <7?<#). Canterus plausibly
combines both words into itaque — '' therefore." LB. reads ecquid — " do
you at all," etc., with which Orelli so far agrees, that he makes the
whole sentence interrogative.

1 So restored by Stewechius ; in the first ed. perspiciam (instead of
am-us) " if I perceive the truth," etc.

2 So the sis. very intelligibly and forcibly, res . . . invida, but the
common reading is invid-i-a — " whom something . . . with envy." The
train of thought which is merely started here is pursued at some length
a little later.

* The MS. gives fedro, but all editions, except the first, Hildebrand,
and Oehler, read Phsedone, referring, however, to a passage in the first
Alcibiades (st. p. 129), which is manifestly absurd, as in it, while Alci-
biades "cannot tell what man is," Socrates at once proceeds to lead him
to the required knowledge by the usual dialectic. Nourry thinks that
there is a general reference to Phzedr. st. p. 230, — a passage in which
Socrates says that he disregards mythological questions that he may
etudy himself.

4 Lit., " changed with the rottenness of some moisture." The refer-

70 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boos n.

received1 these outlines of body, and [this] cast of face, from
the hand of some maker and framer 1 Can he, I say, know
these things, which lie open to all, and are recognisable by2
the senses common [to all], — by what causes we are plunged
into sleep, by what we awake 1 in what ways dreams are
produced, in what they are seen ? nay rather — as to which
Plato in the Thea>tetm* is in doubt — whether we are ever
awake, or whether that very state which is called waking is
part of an unbroken slumber? and what we seem to do when
we say that we see a dream ? whether we see by means of
rays of light proceeding towards the object,4 or images of
the objects fly to and alight on the pupils of our eyes ?
whether the flavour is in the things [tasted], or arises from
their touching the palate 1 from what causes hairs lay aside
their natural darkness, and do not become gray all at once,
but by adding little by little ? why it is that all fluids, on
mingling, form one whole ; [that] oil, [on the contrary], does
not suffer the others to be poured into it,5 but is ever brought
together clearly into its own impenetrable6 substance ? finally,
why the soul also, which is said by you to be immortal and
divine,7 is sick in [men who are] sick, senseless in children,

ence is probably to the statement by Socrates (Phtedo, st. p. 96) of the
questions with regard to the origin of life, its progress and development,
which interested him as a young man.

1 So the MS., LB., and Oehler, but the other edd. make the verb
plural, and thus break the connection.

2 Lit, "established in the common senses."

3 Arnobius overstates the fact here. In the passage referred to (Tli.
st. p. 158), Socrates is represented as developing the Protagorean theory
from its author's standpoint, not as stating his own opinions.

4 Lit., " by the stretching out of rays and of light." This, the doc-
trine of the Stoics, is naturally contrasted in the next clause with that
of Epicurus.

5 Lit., " oil refuses to suffer immersion into itself," i.e. of other
fluids.

6 So LB., followed by Orelli, reading impenetrabil-em for the MS.
impeiietrabil-is, which is corrected in both Roman edd. by Gclenius,
Canterus, and Elmenhorst -e, to agree with the subject oleum—" being
impenetrable is ever," etc.

7 Lit, "a god."

BOOK ii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 71

worn out in doting, silly,1 and crazy old age ? Now the weak-
ness and wretched ignorance of these [theories] is greater on
this account, that while it may happen that we at times say
something which is true,2 we cannot be sure even of this
very thing, whether we have spoken the truth at all.

8. And since you have been wont to laugh at our faith,
and with droll jests to pull to pieces [our] readiness of belief
too, say, O wits, soaked and filled with wisdom's pure draught,
is there in life any kind of business demanding diligence and
activity, which the doers3 undertake, engage in, and essay,
without believing [that it can be done] ? Do you travel
about, do you sail on the sea without believing that you will
return home when your business is done ? Do you break
up the earth with the plough, and fill it with different kinds
of seeds without believing that you will gather in the fruit
with the changes of the seasons ? Do you unite with part-
ners in marriage,4 without believing that it will be pure, and
a union serviceable to the husband ? Do you beget children
without believing that they will pass5 safely through the
[different] stages of life to the goal of age I Do you commit
your sick bodies to the hands of physicians, without believing
that diseases can be relieved by their severity being lessened?
Do you wage wars with your enemies, without believing that
you will carry off the victory by success in battles?6 Do
you worship and serve the gods without believing that they
are, and that they listen graciously to your prayers ?

9. What, have you seen with your eyes, and handled7
with your hands, those things which you write yourselves,

1 So the edd., generally reading fatua for the MS. futura, which is
clearly corrupt. Hildebrand turns the three adjectives into correspond-
ing verbs, and Heinsius emends deliret (MS. -ra) et fatue et insane —
" dotes both sillily and crazily." Arnobius here follows Lucr. iii. 445 sqq.

2 Lit., " something of truth."

3 The MS. has a-t-tor-o-s, corrected by a later writer a-c-tor-e-s, which
is received in LB. and by Meursius and Orelli.

4 Lit., " unite marriage partnerships."

5 Lit., "be safe and come."

9 Or, " in successive battles "—prceliorum successioniliis.
7 Lit., " with ocular inspection, and held touched."

72 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK 11.

which you read from time to time on subjects placed beyond
human knowledge ? Does not each one trust this author or
that? That which any one has persuaded himself is said
with truth by another, does he not defend with a kind of
assent, as it were, [like that] of faith ? Does not he who
says that fire1 or water is the origin of all things, pin his
faith to Thales or Heraclitus I he who places the cause [of
all] in numbers, to Pythagoras of Samos, [and] to Archytas ?
he who divides the soul, and sets up bodiless forms, to Plato,
the disciple of Socrates'? he who adds a fifth element2 to the
primary causes, to Aristotle, the father of the Peripatetics ?
he who threatens the world with [destruction by] fire, and
says that when the time comes it will be [set] on fire, to
Panaetius, Chrysippus, Zeno? he who is always fashioning
worlds from atoms,3 and destroying [them], to Epicurus,
Democritus, Metrodorus? he who [says] that nothing is com-
prehended by man, and that all things are wrapt in dark
obscurity,4 to Archesilas,5 to Carneades? — to some teacher,
in fine, of the old and later Academy ?

10. Finally, do not even the leaders and founders of the
schools6 already mentioned, say those very things7 which

1 " Fire" is wanting in the MS.

2 Arnobius here allows himself to be misled by Cicero (Tusc. i. 10),
who explains \vrthk-^.i» as a kind of perpetual motion, evidently con-
fusing it with iv&tKkfcitx. (cf. Donaldson, New Crat. § 339 sqq.), and re-
presents Aristotle as making it a fifth primary cause. The word has no
such meaning, and Aristotle invariably enumerates only four primary
causes: the material from which, the form in which, the power by which,
and the end for which anything exists (Physics, ii. 3 ; MetapJi. iv. 2, etc.).

3 Lit., " with indivisible bodies." 4 PL

5 So the MS., LB., and Hildebrand, reading Archesilas, while the
others read Archesilao, forgetting that Arcesilas is the regular Latin
form, although Archesilaus is found.

6 Sententiarum is read in the first ed. by Gelenius, Canterus, and
Ursinus, and seems from Crusius to be the MS. reading. The other
edd., however, have received from the margin of Ursinus the reading of
the text, sectarum.

7 In the first ed., and that of Ursinus, the reading is, nonne apud ea,
" in those things which they say, do they not say," etc., which Geleniua
emended as in the text, nonne ipsa ea.

BOOK n.] A RN OBI US AD VERSUS GENTES. 73

they do say through belief in their own ideas? For, did
Heraclitus see things produced by the changes of fires?
Thales, by the condensing of water 1 l [Did] Pythagoras [see
them] spring from number?2 [Did] Plato [see] the bodiless
forms ? Democritus, the meeting together of the atoms ? Or
do those who assert that nothing at all can be comprehended
by man, know whether what they say is true, so as to3
understand that the very proposition which they lay down
is a declaration of truth ? 4 Since, then, you have discovered
and learned nothing, and are led by credulity to assert all
those things which you write, and comprise in thousands of
books ; what kind of judgment, pray, is this, so unjust that
you mock at faith in us, while you see that you have it
in common with our readiness of belief ? 5 But [you say]
you believe wise men, well versed in all kinds of learning!
• — those, forsooth, who know nothing, and agree in nothing
which they say; who join battle with their opponents on
behalf of their own opinions, and are always contending
fiercely with obstinate hostility ; who, overthrowing, refuting,

1 Cf. Diog. Laert. ix. 9, where Heraclitus is said to have taught that
fire — the first principle — condensing becomes water, water earth, and
conversely ; and on Thales, Arist. Met. A, 3, where, however, as in
other places, Thales is merely said to have referred the generation and
maintenance of all things to moisture, although by others he is repre-
sented as teaching the doctrine ascribed to him above. Cf. Cic. de Nat.
Deor. i. 10, and Heraclides, Alleg. Horn. c. 22, where water evaporating
is said to become air, and settling, to become mud.

2 There is some difficulty as to the reading : the MS., first ed., and
Ursinus give numero s-c-ire, explained by Canterus as meaning " that
numbers have understanding," i.e. so as to be the cause of all. Gelenius,
followed by Canterus, reads -os scit — " does Pyth. know numbers,"
which is absurdly out of place. Heraldus approved of a reading in the
margin of Ursinus (merely inserting o after c), " that numbers unite,"
which seems very plausible. The text follows an emendation of Gro-
novius adopted by Orelli, -o ex-ire.

3 So the MS., reading ut ; but Orelli, and all edd. before him, out — " or
do they."

4 i.e. that truth knowable by man exists.

8 So the MS. reading nostra in-credulitate, for which Ursinus, followed
by Stewechius, reads nostra cum. Heraldus conjectured vestra, i.e. " in
your readiness of belief," you are just as much exposed to such ridicule.

74 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK ir.

and bringing to nought the one the other's doctrines, have
made all things doubtful, and have shown from their very
want of agreement that nothing can be known.

11. But, [supposing that] these things do not at all hinder
or prevent your being bound to believe and hearken to them
in great measure ; l and what [reason] is there either that you
should have more [liberty] in this respect, or that we [should
have] less ? You believe Plato,2 Cronius,3 Numenius, or any
one you please ; we believe and confide in Christ. How un-
reasonable it is, that when we both abide 4 by teachers, and
have one and the same thing, belief, in common, you should
wish it to be granted to you to receive what is so5 said by them,
[but] should be unwilling to hear and see what is brought for-
ward by Christ ! And yet, if we chose to compare cause with
cause, we are better able to point out what we have followed
in Christ, than [you to point out] what you [have followed]
in the philosophers. And we, indeed, have followed in him
these things — those glorious works and most potent virtues
which he manifested and displayed in diverse miracles, by
which any one might be led to [feel] the necessity of believing,
and [might] decide with confidence that they were not such as
might be regarded as man's, but [such as showed] some divine
and unknown power. What virtues did you follow in the

1 Heraldus has well suggested that plurimum is a gloss arising out of
its being met with in the next clause.

2 So the MS. and edd., reading Platoni; but Ursinus suggested Plotino,
which Heraldus thinks most probably correct. There is, indeed, an
evident suitableness in introducing here the later rather than the earlier
philosopher, which has great weight in dealing with the next name,
and should therefore, perhaps, have some in this case also.

3 The MS. and both Eoman edd. give Crotonio, rejected by the others
because no Crotonius is known (it has been referred, however, to Pytha-
goras, on the ground of his having taught in Croton). In the margin
of Ursinus Cronius was suggested, received by LB. and Orelli, who is
mentioned by Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. vi. 19, 3) with Numenius and others
as an eminent Pythagorean, and by Porphyry (de Ant. Nymph, xxi.),
as a friend of Numenius, and one of those who treated the Homeric
poems as allegories. Gelenius substitutes Plotinus, followed by most edd.

4 Stemus, the admirable correction of Gelenius for the MS. tem-p-us.
s Orelli, following Stewecluus, would omit ita.

BOOK ii.] ARNOBIUS ADVEESUS GENTES. 75

philosophers, that it was more reasonable for you [to believe]
them than for us to believe Christ ? Was any one of them
ever able by one word, or by a single command, I will not
say to restrain, to check 1 the madness of the sea or the f ury
of the storm ; to restore their sight to the blind, or give it to
men blind from their birth ; to call the dead back to life ; to
put an end to the sufferings of years ; but — and this is much
easier 2 — to heal by one rebuke a boil, a scab, or a thorn fixed
in the skin ? Not that we deny either that they are worthy
of praise for the soundness of their morals, or that they are
skilled in all kinds of studies and learning: for we know
that they both speak in the most elegant language, and [that
their words] flow in polished periods ; that they reason in
syllogisms with the utmost acuteness ; that they arrange their
inferences in due order ; 3 that they express, divide, distinguish
principles by definitions ; that they say many things about
the [different] kinds of numbers, many things about music ;
that by their maxims and precepts 4 they settle the problems
of geometry also. But what [has] that to [do with] the
case? Do enthymemes, syllogisms, and other such things,
assure us that these [men] know what is true ? or are they
therefore such that credence should necessarily be given to
them with regard to very obscure subjects ? A comparison
of persons must be decided, not by vigour of eloquence, but
by the excellence of the works [which they have] done.
He must not5 be called a good teacher who has expressed
himself clearly,6 but he who accompanies his promises with
the guarantee of divine works.

12. You bring forward arguments against us, and specu-

1 Hildebrand thinks compescere here a gloss, but it must be remem-
bered that redundancy is a characteristic of Arnobius.

2 The superlative is here, as elsewhere, used by Arnobius instead of
the comparative.

3 i.e. so as to show the relations existing between them.

4 Perhaps " axioms and postulates."

5 According to Crusius, non is not found in the MS.

6 White and Riddle translate candidule, " sincerely," but give no
other instance of its use, and here the reference is plainly to the pre-
vious statement of the literary excellence of the philosophers. Heraldua

76 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boon H.

lative quibblings,1 which — may I say this without displeasing
him — if Christ himself were to use in the gatherings of the
nations, who would assent ? who would listen ? who would
say that he decided2 anything clearly? or who, though he
were rash and utterly3 credulous, would follow him when
pouring forth vain and baseless statements? His virtues
[have been] made manifest to you, and that unheard-of
power over things, whether that which was openly exercised
by him, or that which was used 4 over the whole world by
those who proclaimed him : it has subdued the fires of pas-
sion, and caused races, and peoples, and nations most diverse
in character to hasten with one accord to accept the same
faith. For the [deeds] can be reckoned up and numbered
which have been done in India,5 among the Seres, Per-
sians, and Medes ; in Arabia, Egypt, in Asia, Syria ;
among the Galatians, Parthian s, Phrygians ; in Achaia,
Macedonia, Epirus ; in all islands and provinces on which
the rising and setting sun shines ; in Rome herself, finally,
the mistress [of the world], in which, although men are6

suggests callidule, " cunningly," of which Orelli approves; but by re-
ferring the adv. to this well-known meaning of its primitive, all necessity
for emendation is obviated.

1 Lit., " subtleties of suspicions." This passage is certainly doubtful.
The reading translated, et suspicionum argutias profer-tis, is that of LB.,
Orelli, and the later edd. generally ; while the MS. reads -atis — " Bring
forward arguments to us, and" (for which Heraldus conjectures very
plausibly, nee, " and not ") " subtleties," etc., which, by changing a
single letter, reads in the earlier edd. profer-etis — " Will you," or, " You
will bring forward," etc.

2 Meursius conjectures in- (for sis. /«-) dicare — " pointed out," of
which Orelli approves.

3 So the sis. and both Roman edd., supported by Heraldus, reading
solid & facilitatis, changed by the edd. into stolidse — " stupid."

4 So all the edd. except Oehler ; but as the first verb is plural in the
MS., while the second is singular, it is at least as probable that the second
was plural originally also, and that therefore the relative should be made
to refer both to " virtues" and " power."

c Orelli notes that by India is here meant Ethiopia. If so, it may bo
well to remember that Lucan (x. 29 sq.) makes the Seres neighbours of
the Ethiopians, and dwellers at the sources of the Nile.

6 Instead of slnt, Stewechius would read essent — " were."

BOOK ii.] A RNOB1 US AD VERSUS GENTES. 77

busied with the practices introduced by king1 Numa, and the
superstitious observances of antiquity, they have nevertheless
hastened to give up their fathers' mode of life,2 and attach
themselves to Christian truth. For they had seen the chariot3
of Simon Magus, and his fiery car, blown into pieces by the
mouth of Peter, and vanish when Christ was named. They
had seen [him], I say, trusting in false gods, and abandoned
by them in their terror, borne down headlong by his own
weight, lie prostrate with his legs broken ; [and] then, when
he had been carried to Brunda,4 worn out with anguish and
shame, again cast himself down from the roof of a very lofty
house. But all these deeds you neither know nor have
wished to know, nor did you ever consider that they were
of the utmost importance to you ; and while you trust your
own judgments, and term [that] wisdom which is overweening
conceit, you have given to deceivers — to those guilty [ones],
I say, whose interest it is that the Christian name be de-
graded— an opportunity of raising clouds of darkness, and
concealing truths of so much importance ; of robbing you of
faith, and putting scorn in its place, in order that, as they
already feel that an end such as they deserve threatens them,
they might excite in you also a feeling through which you
should run into danger, and be deprived of the divine mercy.
13. Meantime, however, O you who wonder and are aston-
ished at the doctrines of the learned, and of philosophy,

1 Instead of the MS. reading, Numss regis artibus et antiquis supersti-
tionibus, Stewechius, followed by Heraldus, would read ritibus — " with
the rites of Numa," etc.

2 So the MS., reading res patrias, for which Heraldus, ritus patrios —
" rites."

3 So the SIS., although the first five edd., by changing r into s, read
cur-s-um — " course." This story is of frequent occurrence in the later
fathers, but is never referred to by the earlier, or by any except Christian
writers, and is derived solely from the Apostolic Constitutions. In the
Greek version of the Apost. Const, the sixth book opens with a disserta-
tion on schisms and heresies, in which the story of Simon and others is
told ; but that this was interpolated by some compiler seems clear from
the arguments brought forward by Bunsen (Hippolytus and his Age, more
particularly vol. ii. Pt. 2, § 2, and the second appendix).

4 Brunda or Brenda, i.e. Brundisium.

78 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK IL

do you not then think it most unjust to scoff, to jeer at
us as though we say foolish and senseless things, when you
too are found to say either these or just such things which
you laugh at when said and uttered by us ? Nor do I address
those who, scattered through various bypaths of the schools,
have formed this and that [insignificant] party through
diversity of opinion. You, you I address, who zealously
follow Mercury,1 Plato, and Pythagoras, and the rest of you
who are of one mind, and walk in unity in the same paths of
doctrine. Do you dare to laugh at us because we 2 revere
and worship the Creator and Lord3 of the universe, and
because we commit and entrust our hopes to Him ? What
[does] your Plato [say] in the T/iecetetus, to mention him
especially ? Does he not exhort the soul to flee from the earth,
and, as much as in it lies, to be continually engaged in
thought and meditation about Him?4 Do you dare to laugh
at us, because we say that there will be a resurrection of the
dead? And this indeed we confess that we say, but [main-
tain] that it is understood by you otherwise than we hold it.
What [says] the same Plato in the Politicus ? Does he not
say that, when the world has begun to rise out of the west
and tend towards the east,5 men will again burst forth from
the bosom of the earth, aged, grey-haired, bowed down with

1 Hermes Trismegistus. See index.

2 So the MS., Elmenh., LB., Hildebrand, and Oehler, reading quod, for
which the other edd. read qui — " who."

3 This seems to be the reading intended by the MS., which according
to Hild. gives dom, i.e. probably dominum, which Oehler adopts, but all
other edd. read deum — " god."

4 Arnobius rather exaggerates the force of the passage referred to (st.
p. 173), which occurs in the beautiful digression on philosophers. Plato
there says that only the philosopher's body is here on earth, while his
mind, holding politics and the ordinary business and amusements of
life unworthy of attention, is occupied with what is above and beneath
the earth, just as Thales, when he fell into a ditch, was looking at the
stars, and not at his steps.

5 In cardinem verrjere fjui orientis est solis seems to be the reading
of all edd. ; but according to Crusius the MS. reads vertere — " to
turn." Hildebrand, on the contrary, affirms that instead of /, the MS.
gives c.

BOOK it.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 79

years ; and that when the remoter l years begin to draw near,
they will gradually sink down 2 to the cradles of their infancy,
through the same steps by which they now grow to man-
hood ? 3 Do you dare to laugh at us because we see to
the salvation of our souls 1 — that is, ourselves [care] for our-
selves : for what are we men, but souls shut up in bodies ?
(You, indeed, do not take every pains for their safety,4 in that
you do not refrain from all vice and passion ; about this you
are anxious, that you may cleave to [your] bodies as though
inseparably bound to them.6) What mean those mystic
rites,6 in which you beseech some [unknown] powers to be
favourable to you, and not put any hindrance in your way
to impede you when returning to your native seats ?

14. Do you dare to laugh at us when we speak of hell,7
and fires8 which cannot be quenched, into which we have

1 i.e. originally earlier.

2 So most edd., reading desituros, for which Stewechius suggests de-
sulturos — " leap down ; " LB. exituros — " go out."

3 Reference is here made to one of the most extraordinary of the
Platonic myths (Pol. 269-274), in which the world is represented as not
merely material, but as being further possessed of intelligence. It is
ever in motion, but not always in the same way. For at one time its
motion is directed by a divine governor (rov 7r»vTo; d plv xvfapvviTYi;) ; but
this does not continue, for he withdraws from his task, and thereupon
the world loses, or rather gives up its previous bias, and begins to re-
volve in the opposite direction, causing among other results a reverse
development of the phenomena which occurred before, such as Arnobius
describes. Arnobius, however, gives too much weight to the myth, as in
the introduction it is more than hinted that it may be addressed to the
young Socrates, as boys like such stories, and he is not much more than
a boy. With it should be contrasted the " great year " of the Stoics,
in which the universe fulfilled its course, and then began afresh to pass
through the same experience as before (Nemesius, de Nat. Horn. c. 38).

4 LB. makes these words interrogative, but the above arrangement is
clearly vindicated by the tenor of the argument : You laugh at our
care for our souls' salvation ; and truly you do not see to their safety by
such precautions as a virtuous life, but do you not seek that which you
think salvation by mystic rites?

5 Lit., "fastened with beam" (i.e. large and strong) "nails."

6 Cf. on the intercessory prayers of the Magi, c. 6'2.

1 PI. Cf. Milman's note on Gibbon, vol. 2, c. xi. p. ','.
8 Lit., " certain fires."

80 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

learned that souls are cast by their foes and enemies ? What,
does not your Plato also, in the book which he wrote on the
immortality of the soul, name the rivers Acheron, Styx,1
Cocytus, and Pyriphlegethon, and assert that in them souls
are rolled along, engulfed, and burned up? But [though]
a man of no little wisdom,2 and of accurate judgment and
discernment, he essays a problem which cannot be solved ; so
that, while he says that the soul is immortal, everlasting,
and without bodily substance, he yet says that they are
punished, and makes them suffer pain.3 But what man does
not see that that which is immortal, which [is] simple,4 cannot
be subject to any pain ; that that, on the contrary, cannot
be immortal which does suffer pain ? And yet his opinion
is not very far from the truth. For although the gentle and
kindly disposed man thought it inhuman cruelty to condemn
souls to death, he yet not unreasonably 6 supposed that they
are cast into rivers blazing with masses of flame, and loath-
some from their foul abysses. For they are cast in, and
being annihilated, pass away vainly in 6 everlasting destruc-
tion. For theirs is an intermediate7 state, as has been
learned from Christ's teaching ; and [they are] such that they
may on the one hand perish if they have not known God,
and on the other be delivered from death if they have given
heed to his threats8 and [proffered] favours. And to make

1 Plato, in the passage referred to (Phiedo, st. p. 113, § 61), speaks
of the Styx not as a river, but as the lake into which the Cocytus
falls. The fourth river which he mentions in addition to the Acheron,
Pyriphlegethon, and Cocytus, which he calls Stygian, is the Ocean
stream.

2 So the MS., according to Hild., reading parvie; but ace. to Rigaltius
and Crusius, it gives pravx — " of no mean."

3 So LB., Hild., and Oehler, reading doloris official sensu, by merely
dropping m from the MS. sensu-m; while all the other edd. read doloribus
sensuum — " affects with the pains of the senses."

4 i.e. not compounded of soul and body.

5 Or, " not unsuitably," absone.

6 Lit., " im the failure (or ' disappointment') of," etc.

7 i.e. neither immortal nor necessarily mortal.

8 So Gelenius emended the unintelligible MS. reading se-mina by
merely adding s, followed by all edd., although Ursinus in the margin

BOOK ii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 81

manifest1 what is unknown, this is man's real death, this
which leaves nothing behind. For that which is seen by
the eyes is [only] a separation of soul from body, not
the last end — annihilation :2 this, I say, is man's real death,
when souls which know not God shall3 be consumed in
long-protracted torment with raging fire, into which certain
fiercely cruel [beings] shall3 cast them, who were unknown4
before Christ, and brought to light only by his wisdom.

15. Wherefore there is no reason that that5 should mis-
lead us, should hold out vain hopes to us, which is said by
some men till now unheard of,6 and carried away by an
extravagant opinion of themselves, that souls are immortal,
next in point of rank to the God and ruler of the world,
descended from that parent and sire, divine, wise, learned,
and not within reach of the body by contact.7 Now, because
this is true and certain, and because we have been produced
by him who is perfect without flaw, we live unblameably,
[I suppose], and therefore without blame ; [are] good, just,
and upright, in nothing depraved ; no passion overpowers,
no lust degrades us ; we maintain vigorously the unremitting

suggests se rnlam, i.e. mi-sericordiam — " pity ;" and Heraldus conjectures
munia — " gifts."

1 So almost all edd., from a conjecture of Gelenius, supplying ut, which
is wanting in the MS., first ed., and Oehler.

2 It is worth while to contrast Augustine's words : " The death which
men fear is the separation of the soul from the body. The true death,
which men do not fear, is the separation of the soul from God " (Aug.
in Ps. xlviii., quoted by Elmenhorst).

3 In the first ed., Gelenius, Canterus, Ursinus, and Orelli, both verbs
are made present, but all other edd. follow the MS. as above.

4 Lit., " and unknown." Here Arnobius shows himself ignorant of
Jewish teaching, as in iii. 12.

5 So the MS. and LB., followed by Oehler ; in the edd. id is omitted.

8 The MS. reading is a no-b-is quibusdam, for which LB. reads nobis a
qu. — " to us," and Hild. a notis — " by certain known ;" but all others, as
above, from a conjecture of Gelenius, a no-v-is, although Orelli shows
his critical sagacity by preferring an emendation in the margin of
Ursinus, a bonis — " by certain good men," in which he sees a happy
irony !

7 Lit., " not touchable by any contact of body," neque utta corporis
attrectatione contiguas.

AKNOB. F

82 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

practice of all the virtues. And because all our souls have
one origin, we therefore think exactly alike ; we do not
differ in manners, we do not differ in beliefs ; we all know
God ; and there are not as many opinions as there are men
in the world, nor [are these] divided in infinite variety.1

16. But, [they say], while we are moving swiftly down
towards our mortal bodies,2 causes pursue us from the world's
circles,3 through the working of which we become bad, ay,
most wicked ; burn with lust and anger, spend our life in
shameful deeds, and are given over to the lust of all by the
prostitution of our bodies for hire. And how can the material
unite with the immaterial ? or how can that which God has
made, be led by weaker causes to degrade itself through the
practice of vice? Will you lay aside your habitual arrogance,4
O men, who claim God as your Father, and maintain that
you are immortal, just as he is? Will you inquire, examine,
search what you are yourselves, whose you are, of what
parentage you are supposed [to be], what you do in the
world, in what way you are born, how you leap to life ?
Will you, laying aside [all] partiality, consider in the silence
of your thoughts that we are creatures either quite like the
rest, or separated by no great difference ? For what is there
to show that we do not resemble them ? or what excellence
is in us, such that we scorn to be ranked as creatures ?
Their bodies are built up on bones, and bound closely together
by sinews ; and our bodies are in like manner built up on

1 Arnobius considers the reductio ad absurdum so very plain, that he
does not trouble himself to state his argument more directly.

2 There has been much confusion as to the meaning of Arnobius
throughout this discussion, which would have been obviated if it had
been remembered that his main purpose in it is to show how unsatis-
factory and unstable are the theories of the philosophers, and that he
is not therefore to be identified with the views brought forward, but
rather with the objections raised to them.

3 Of. c. 28, p. 95.

4 So the MS., followed by Orelli and others, reading institution super-
ciliumque — " habit and arrogance," for the first word of which LB. reads
istum ti/phum — " that pride of yours ; " Meursius, isti typhum — " Lay aside
pride, 0 ye."

BOOK ii.] ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 83

bones, and bound closely together by sinews. They inspire
the air through nostrils, and in breathing expire it again ;
and we in like manner draw in the air, and breathe it out
with frequent respirations. They have been arranged in
classes, female and male; we, too, have been fashioned by our
Creator into the same sexes.1 Their young are born from
the womb, and are begotten through union of the sexes ;
and we are born from sexual embraces, and are brought
forth and sent into life from our mothers' wombs. They
are supported by eating and drinking, and get rid of the
filth which remains by the lower parts; and we are sup-
ported by eating and drinking, and that which nature refuses
we deal with in the same way. Their care is to ward off
death-bringing famine, and of necessity to be on the watch
for food. What else is our aim in the business of life, which
presses so much upon us,2 but to seek the means by which
the danger of starvation may be avoided, and carking anxiety
put away ? They are exposed to disease and hunger, and at
last lose their strength by reason of age. What, then ? are
we not exposed to these evils, and are we not in like manner
weakened by noxious diseases, destroyed by wasting age ?
But if that, too, which is said in the more hidden mysteries
is true, that the souls of wicked men, on leaving their human
bodies, pass into cattle and other creatures,3 it is [even] more
clearly shown that we are allied to them, and not separated by
any great interval, since it is on the same ground that both
we and they are said to be living creatures, and to act as such.
17. But we have reason, [one will say], and excel the
whole race of dumb animals in understanding. I might
believe that this was quite true, if all men lived rationally
and wisely, never swerved aside from their duty, abstained
from what is forbidden, and withheld themselves from base-
ness, and [if] no one through folly and the blindness of
ignorance demanded what is injurious and dangerous to

1 So the edd., reading in totidem sexus for the MS. sexu — " into so many
kinds in sex."

2 Lit., " in so great occupations of life."
8 Of. Plato, Phiedo, st. p. 81.

84 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

himself. I should wish, however, to know what this reason
is, through which we are more excellent than all the tribes
of animals. [Is it] because we have made for ourselves
houses, by which we can avoid the cold of winter and heat
of summer ? What ! do not the other animals show fore-
thought in this respect ? Do we not see some build nests as
dwellings for themselves in the most convenient situations ;
others shelter and secure [themselves] in rocks and lofty
crags ; others burrow in the ground, and prepare for them-
selves strongholds and lairs in the pits which they have dug
out ? But if nature, which gave them life, had chosen to
give to them also hands to help them, they too would, with-
out doubt, raise lofty buildings and strike out new works
of art.1 Yet, even in those things which they make with
beaks and claws, we see that there are many appearances of
reason and wisdom which we men are unable to copy, how-
ever much we ponder them, although we have hands to serve
us dexterously in every kind of work.

18. They have not learned, [I will be told], to make cloth-
ing, seats, ships, and ploughs, nor, in fine, the other furniture
which family life requires. These are not the gifts of science,
but the suggestions of most pressing necessity ; nor did the
arts descend with [men's] souls from the inmost heavens, but
here on earth have they all been painfully sought out and
brought to light,2 and gradually acquired in process of time
by careful thought. But if the soul3 had [in itself] the
knowledge which it is fitting that a race should have indeed
[which is] divine and immortal, all men would from the first
know everything; nor would there be an age unacquainted
with any art, or not furnished with practical knowledge.
But now a life of want and in need of many things,

1 So, by a later writer in the margin of the MS., who gives artificiosa-s
novitates, adopted by Stewechius and Oehler, the s being omitted in the
text of the MS. itself, as in the edd., which drop the final s in the next
word also — "would raise and with unknown art strike out lofty
buildings."

3 Lit., "born."

3 Throughout this discussion, Arnobius generally uses the plural,
animse — " souls.'

BOOK ii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 85

noticing some things happen accidentally to its advantage,
while it imitates, experiments, and tries, while it fails, re-
moulds, changes, from continual failure has procured for
itself1 and wrought out some slight acquaintance with the
arts, and brought to one issue the advances of many ages.

19. But if men either knew themselves thoroughly, or had
the slightest knowledge of God,2 they would never claim as
their own a divine and immortal nature ; nor would they
think themselves something great because they have made
for themselves gridirons, basins, and bowls,3 because [they
have made] under-shirts, outer-shirts, cloaks, plaids, robes of
state, knives, cuirasses and swords, mattocks, hatchets,
ploughs. Never, I say, carried away by pride and arrogance,
would they believe themselves to be deities of the first rank,
and fellows of the highest in his exaltation,4 because they5 had
devised the arts of grammar, music, oratory, and geometry.
For we do not see what is [so] wonderful in these arts, that
because of their discovery the soul should be believed to be
above the sun as well as all the stars, to surpass both in
grandeur and essence the whole universe, of which these are
parts. For what else do these assert that they can either
declare or teach, than that we may learn to know the rules
and differences of nouns, the intervals in the sounds of [dif-
ferent] tones, that we may speak persuasively in lawsuits,
that we may measure the confines of the earth ? Now, if
the soul had brought these arts with it from the celestial
regions, and it were impossible not to know them, all men

1 So Elmenhorst, Oberthuer, and Orelli, reading par-a-v-it sibi et for
the MS. parv-as et, " from continual failure has wrought out indeed
slight smattering of the arts," etc., which is retained in both Roman
edd., LB., and Hild. ; while Gelenius and Canterus merely substitute
sibi for et, " wrought out for itself slight," etc.

2 Lit., " or received understanding of God by the breath of any sus-
picion."

3 The MS. gives c-etera-que, " and the rest," which is retained in both
Roman edd., and by Gelenius and Canterus, though rather out of place,
as the enumeration goes on.

4 Lit., " equal to the highness (summitati) of the prince."

* So LB. and Orelli, reading qui-ti ; the rest, qui — " who."

86 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK IL

would long before this be busied with them over all the
earth, nor would any race of men be found which would not
be equally and similarly instructed in them all. But now
how few musicians, logicians, and geometricians are there in
the world ! how few orators, poets, critics ! From which it
is clear, as has been said pretty frequently, that these things
were discovered under the pressure of time and circum-
stances, and that the soul did not fly hither divinely l taught,
because neither are all learned, nor can all learn; and2 there
are very many among them somewhat deficient in shrewdness,
and stupid, and they are constrained to apply themselves to
learning [only] by fear of stripes. But if it were a fact
that the things which we learn are but reminiscences3 — as
has been maintained in the systems of the ancients — as we
start from the same truth, we should all have learned alike,
and remember alike — not have diverse, very numerous, and
inconsistent opinions. Now, however, seeing that we each
assert different things, it is clear and manifest that we have
brought nothing from heaven, but become acquainted with
what has arisen here, and maintain what has taken firm root
in our thoughts.

20. And, that we may show you more clearly and distinctly
what is the worth of man, whom you believe to be very like
the higher power, conceive this idea ; and because it can be
done if we come into direct contact with it, let us conceive
it just as if we came into contact. Let us then imagine a
place dug out in the earth, fit for dwelling in, formed into a
chamber, enclosed by a roof and walls, not cold in winter,
not too warm in summer, but so regulated and equable that
we suffer neither cold 4 nor the violent heat of summer. To
this let there not come any sound or cry whatever,5 of bird,
of beast, of storm, of man — of any noise, in fine, or of the

1 So Gelenius, reading divinitus for the MS. divinas, i.e. " with a divine
nature and origin," which is retained in the first ed. and Orelli.

2 The MS., both Roman edd., Hild., and Oehler, read ut, " so that there
are."

8 Of. on this Platonic doctrine, ch. 24.

4 Lit., " a feeling of cold." 6 Lit., " sound of voice at all."

BOOK ii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 87

thunder's l terrible crash. Let us next devise a way in which
it may be lighted not by the introduction of fire, nor by the
sight of the sun, but let there be some counterfeit 2 to imi-
tate sunlight, darkness being interposed.3 Let there not be
one door, nor a direct entrance, [but] let it be approached
by tortuous windings, and let it never be thrown open unless
when it is absolutely necessary.

21. Now, as we have prepared a place for our idea, let us
next receive some one born to dwell there, where there is
nothing but an empty void,4 — one of the race of Plato, namely,
or Pythagoras, or some one of those who are regarded as of
superhuman wit, or have been declared most wise by the
oracles of the gods. And when this has been done, he must
then be nourished and brought up on suitable food. Let
us therefore provide a nurse also, who shall come to him
always naked, ever silent, uttering not a word, and shall not
open her mouth and lips to speak at all, but after suckling
him, and doing what else is necessary, shall leave him fast
asleep, and remain day and night before the closed doors ;
for it is usually necessary that the nurse's care should be
near at hand, and that [she] should watch his varying motions.
But when the child begins to need to be supported by more
substantial food, let it be borne in by the same nurse, still
undressed, and maintaining the same unbroken silence. Let
the food, too, which is carried in be always precisely the
same, with no difference in the material, and without being
re-cooked by means of different flavours ; but let it be either
pottage of millet, or bread of spelt, or, in imitation of the
ancients, chestnuts roasted in the hot ashes, or berries plucked

1 Lit., " of heaven terribly crashing."

2 So the later edd., adopting the emendation of Scaliger, nothum —
" spurious," which here seems to approach in meaning to its use by
Lucretius (v. 574 sq.), of the moon's light as borrowed from the sun.
The MS. and first four edd. read notum, " known."

8 According to Huet (quoted by Oehler), " between that spurious and
the true light;" but perhaps the idea is that of darkness interposed at
intervals to resemble the recurrence of night.

4 Lit., " born, and that, too (et wanting in almost all edd.), into the
hospice of that place which has nothing, and is inane and empty."

88 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

from forest trees. Let him, moreover, never learn to drink
wine, and let nothing else be used to quench his thirst than
pure cold water from the spring, and [that] if possible raised
to his lips in the hollow of his hands. For habit, growing
into [second] nature, will become familiar from custom ; nor
will his desire extend l further, not knowing that there is
[anything] more to be sought after.

22. To what, then, [you ask], do these things tend ?
[We have brought them forward] in order that — as it has
been believed that the souls [of men] are divine, and there-
fore immortal, and that they come to their human bodies
with all knowledge — we may make trial from this [child],
whom we have supposed to be brought up in this way,
whether this is credible, or has been rashly believed and
taken for granted, in consequence of deceitful anticipation.
Let us suppose, then, that he grows up, reared in a secluded,
lonely spot, spending as many years as you choose, twenty or
thirty, — nay, let him be brought into the assemblies of men
when he has lived through forty years ; and if it is true that
he is a part of the divine essence, and 2 lives here sprung
from the fountains of life, before he makes acquaintance
with anything, or is made familiar .with human speech, let
him be questioned and answer who he is, or from what
father ; in what regions he was born, how or in what way
brought up ; with what work or business he has been en-
gaged during the former part of his life. Will he not, then,
stand [speechless], with less wit and sense than any beast,
block, stone? Will he not, when brought into contact with3
strange and previously unknown things, be above all ignorant
of himself? If you ask, will he be able to say what the
sun is, the earth, seas, stars, clouds, mist, showers, thunder,

1 So most edd., reading porrigetur for the MS. corrigetur — ' ' be corrected,"
i.e. need to be corrected, which is retained in the first ed.

2 So Gelenius, followed by Canterus, Elmenh., and Oberthur, reading
portione-m et, while the words tarn Isetam, " that he is so joyous a part,"
are inserted before et by Stewechius and the rest, except both Koman
edd., which retain the MS. portionejam Iteta.

* Lit., " sent to."

BOOK ii. ] ARNOBIUS ADVERSVS GENTES. 89

snow, hail ? Will he be able to know what trees are, herbs,
or grasses, a bull, a horse, or ram, a camel, elephant, or kite ? l
23. If you give a grape to him when hungry, a must-
cake, an onion, a thistle,2 a cucumber, a fig, will he know
that his hunger can be appeased by all these, or of what
kind each should be [to be fit] for eating?3 If you made a
very great fire, or surrounded him with venomous creatures,
will he not go through the midst of flames, vipers, taran-
tulas,4 without knowing that they are dangerous, and ignorant
even of fear? But again, if you set before him garments
and furniture, both for city and country life, will he indeed
be able to distinguish 5 for what each is fitted ? to discharge
what service they are adapted? Will he declare for what
purposes of dress the stragula 6 was made, the coif,7 zone,8
fillet, cushion, handkerchief, cloak, veil, napkin, furs,9 shoe,
sandal, boot? What, if you go on to ask what a wheel is, or
a sledge,10 a winnowing-fan, jar, tub, an oil-mill, plough-
share, or sieve, a mill-stone, plough-tail, or light hoe ; a
curved seat, a needle, a strigil, a laver, an open seat, a ladle,
a platter, a candlestick, a goblet, a broom, a cup, a bag ; a
lyre, pipe, silver, brass, gold,11 a book, a rod, a roll,12 and
the rest of the equipment by which the life of man is sur-

1 So the MS., reading milvus, for which all edd. (except Oberthuer)
since Stewechius read mulus, " a mule."

2 Carduus, no doubt the esculent thistle, a kind of artichoke.

3 So, according to an emendation in LB., esui, adopted by Orelli and
others, instead of the MS. reading et sui.

4 There has been much discussion as to whether the solifuga or soli-
puga here spoken of is an ant or spider.

5 The MS. reads discriminare, discernere, with the latter word, how-
ever, marked as spurious.

6 A kind of rug. 7 Mitra.

8 Strophium, passing round the breast, by some regarded as a kind of
corset.

9 Mastruca, a garment made of the skins of the mujlone, a Sardinian
wild sheep.

10 Tribula, for rubbing out the corn.

11 Aurum is omitted in all edd., except those of LB., Hild., and Oehler.

12 Liber, a roll of parchment or papyrus, as opposed to the preceding
codex, a book of pages.

90 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boo* n.

rounded and maintained? Will he not in such circum-
stances, as we said, like an ox l or an ass, a pig, or any beast
more senseless, look2 at these indeed, observing their various
shapes, but 3 not knowing what they all are, and ignorant of
the purpose for which they are kept? If he were in any
way compelled to utter a sound, would he not with gaping
mouth shout something indistinctly, as the dumb usually
do?

24. Why, O Plato, do you in the Meno 4 put to a young
slave certain questions relating to the doctrines of number,
and strive to prove by his answers that what we learn we do
not learn, but that we [merely] call back to memory those
things which we knew in former times ? Now, if he answers
you correctly (for it would not be becoming that we should re-
fuse credit to what you say), he is led [to do so] not by his real
knowledge,5 but by his intelligence ; and it results from his
having some acquaintance with numbers, through using them
every day, that when questioned he follows [your meaning],
and that the very process of multiplication always prompts
him. But if you are really assured that the souls [of men
are] immortal and endowed with knowledge [when they] fly
hither, cease to question that youth whom you see to be
ignorant G and accustomed to the ways of men : 7 call to you
that man of forty years, and ask of him, not anything out
of the way or obscure about triangles, about squares, [not]

1 The MS. reads volis unintelligibly, corrected by Meursius lovis.

2 So Orelli and modern edd. ; but Crusius gives as the MS. reading
conspici-etur (not -ef), as given by Ursinus, and commonly received—
"Will he not... be seen?"

3 The MS. and first five edd. read et — " and," changed in LB. to sed.

* In this dialogue (st. p. 81) Socrates brings forward the doctrine of
reminiscence as giving a reasonable ground for the pursuit of know-
ledge, and then proceeds to give a practical illustration of it by leading
an uneducated slave to solve a mathematical problem by means of
question and answer.

6 Lit., "his knowledge of things."

6 So the MS. and edd., reading i-gnarum rerum, except LB., which by
merely omitting the i gives the more natural meaning, "acquainted
with the things," etc.

7 Lit., " established in the limits of humanity."

BOOK ii.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 91

what a cube is, or a second power,1 the ratio of nine to eight,
or finally, of four to three ; but ask him that with which all
are acquainted — what twice two are, or twice three. We
wish to see, we wish to know, what answer he gives when
questioned — whether he solves the desired problem. In such
a case will he perceive, although his ears are open, whether
you are saying anything, or asking anything, or requiring
some answer from him? and will he not stand like a stock,
or the Marpesian rock,2 as the saying is, dumb and speech-
less, not understanding or knowing even this — whether you
are talking with him or with another, conversing with an-
other or with him;3 whether that is intelligible speech which
you utter, or [merely] a cry having no meaning, but drawn
out and protracted to no purpose?

25. What say you, O men, who assign to yourselves too
much of an excellence not your own ? Is this the learned
soul which you describe, immortal, perfect, divine, holding
the fourth place under God the Lord of the universe, and
under the kindred spirits,4 and proceeding from the fountains
of life?5 This is that precious [being] man, endowed6 with
the loftiest powers of reason, who is said [to be] a micro-
cosm, and [to be] made and formed after the fashion of the
whole [universe], superior, as has been seen, to no brute,
more senseless than stock [or] stone ; for he is unacquainted
with men, and always lives, loiters idly in the still deserts

1 i.e. a square numerically or algebraically. The MS., both Koman
edd., and Canterus read di-bus out dynam-us, the former word being
defended by Meursius as equivalent to binio, " a doubling,"— a sense,
however, in which it does not occur. In the other edd., cubus out
dynamis has been received from the margin of Ursinus.

2 sEneid, vi. 472.

8 This clause is with reason rejected by Meursius as a gloss.

4 Founded on Plato's words (Phxdrus, si. p. 247), ru S' (i.e. Zeus)
f^srcti orpatTici 6tuv re xxl j>xip6vutt, the doctrine became prevalent that
under the supreme God were lesser gods made by him, beneath whom
again were daemons, while men stood next. To this Orelli supposes that
Arnobius here refers.

5 The vessels in which, according to Plato (Timieus, st. p. 41), the
Supreme Being mixed the vital essence of all being. Cf. c. 52.

6 Lit., " and endowed."

92 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK 11.

although he were rich,1 lived years without number, and
never escaped from the bonds of the body. But when he
goes to school, [you say], and is instructed by the teaching
of masters, he is made wise, learned, and lays aside the
ignorance which till now clung to him. And an ass, and an
ox as well, if compelled by constant practice, learn to plough
and grind ; a horse, to submit to the yoke, and obey the
reins in running ;2 a camel, to kneel down when being either
loaded or unloaded ; a dove, when set free, to fly back to its
master's house ; a dog, on finding game, to check and repress
its barking ; a parrot, too, to articulate words ; and a crow
to utter names.

26. But when I hear the soul spoken of as something ex-
traordinary, as akin and very nigh to God, [and] as coining
hither knowing all about past times, I would have it teach,
not learn ; and not go back to the rudiments, as the say-
ing is, after being advanced in knowledge, but hold fast
the truths it has learned when it enters its earthly body.3
For unless it were so, how could it be discerned whether [the
soul] recalls to memory or learns [for the first time] that
which it hears ; seeing that it is much easier to believe that
it learns what it is unacquainted with, than that it has for-
got what it knew [but] a little before, and that its power of
recalling former things is lost through the interposition of
the body? And what becomes of the doctrine that souls,
[being] bodiless, do not have substance ? For that which is
not connected with 4 any bodily form is not hampered by the
opposition of another, nor can anything be led5 to destroy
that which cannot be touched by what is set against it. For

1 The text and meaning are both rather doubtful, and the edd. vary
exceedingly. The reading of Orelli, demoretur iners, valeat in aere
quamvis, has been translated as most akin to the MS., with which, ac-
cording to Oehler, it agrees, although Orelli himself gives the MS.
reading as aer-io.

2 Lit., " acknowledge turnings in the course."

3 Lit., "but retaining its own things, bind itself in earthly bodies."
* Lit., " of."

5 So the MS. and edd., reading siia-de-ri, for which Oehler reads very
neatly sua de vi — "can anything of its own power destroy," ete.

BOOK n. J ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 93

as a proportion established in bodies remains unaffected and
secure, though it be lost to sight in a thousand cases ; so
must souls, if they are not material, as is asserted, retain
their knowledge l of the past, however thoroughly they may
have been enclosed in bodies.2 Moreover, the same reason-
ing not only shows that they are not incorporeal, but deprives
them of all 3 immortality even, and refers them to the limits
within which life is usually closed. For whatever is led by
some inducement to change and alter itself, so that it cannot
retain its natural state, must of necessity be considered
essentially passive. But that which is liable and exposed to
suffering, is declared to be corruptible by that very capacity
of suffering.

27. So then, if souls lose all their knowledge on being
fettered with the body, they must experience something of
such a nature that it makes them become blindly forgetful.4
For they cannot, without becoming subject to anything what-
ever, either lay aside their knowledge while they maintain
their natural state, or without change in themselves pass into
a different state. Nay, we rather think that what is one, im-
mortal, simple, in whatever it may be, must always retain its
own nature, and that it neither should nor could be subject
to anything, if indeed it purposes to endure and abide within
the limits of true immortality. For all suffering is a passage
for death and destruction, a way leading to the grave, and
bringing an end of life which may not be escaped from ;
and if souls are liable to it, and yield to its influence and
assaults, they indeed have life given to them only for present
use, not as a secured possession,5 although some come to
other conclusions, and put faith in their own arguments
with regard to so important a matter.

28. And yet, that we may not be as ignorant when we

1 Lit, " not suffer forgetfulness."

2 Lit., " however the most solid unions of bodies may have bound
them round."

3 So the edd., reading privat immortalilate has omni, for which, according
to Hildebrand, the MS. reads -tatem has omnis — "all these of immortality."

4 Lit., "put on the blindness of oblivion."

6 Cf. Lucretius, iii. 969, where life is thus spoken of.

94 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

leave you [as before], let us hear from you l how you say
that the soul, on being enwrapt in an earthly body, has no
recollection of the past ; while, after being actually placed
in the body itself, and rendered almost senseless by union
with it, it holds tenaciously and faithfully the things which
many years before, eighty if you choose to say [so], or even
more, it either did, or suffered, or said, or heard. For if,
through being hampered by the body, it does not remember
those things which it knew long ago, and before it came into
this world,2 there is more reason that it should forget those
things which it has done from time to time since being shut
up in the body, than those which [it did] before entering it,3
while not yet connected with men. For the same body which4
deprives of memory the soul which enters it,5 should cause
what is done within itself also to be wholly forgotten ; for one
cause cannot bring about two results, and [these] opposed to
each other, so as to make some things to be forgotten, [and]
allow others to be remembered by him who did them. But
if souls, as you call them, are prevented and hindered by
their [fleshly] members from recalling their former know-
ledge,6 how do they remember what has been arranged 7 in
[these] very bodies, and know that -they are spirits, and have

1 The MS. reads ne videamu-s, changed in both Roman edd. into -amur
— "that we may not be seen by yon [as ignorant], how say you," etc.
Gelenius proposed the reading of the text, audiamus, which has been
received by Canterus and Orelli. It is clear from the next words —
quemadmodum dicitis — that in this case the verb must be treated as a
kind of interjection, " How say you, let us hear." LB. reads, to much
the same purpose, scire avemus, " we desire to know."

2 Lit., " before man." 8 Lit, " placed outside."
4 Quod enim. 5 Rebus ingressis.

6 So read by Orelli, artes suas antiquas, omitting atque, which, he says,
follows in the MS. It is read after suas, however, in the first ed., and
those of Gelenius, Canterus, Hildebrand ; and according to Oehler, it
is so given in the MS., "its own and ancient." Oberthlir would supply
res — "its own arts and ancient things."

7 So the MS., reading constitut-a, followed by all edd. except those of
Ursinus, Hildebrand, and Oehler, who read -#, " how do they remem-
ber when established in the bodies," which is certainly more in accord-
ance with the context.

BOOK ii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 95

no bodily substance, being exalted by their condition as im-
mortal beings ? l [how do they know] what rank they hold
in the universe, in what order they have been set apart
[from other beings] ? how they have come to these, the
lowest parts of the universe ? what properties they acquired,
and from what circles,2 in gliding along towards these
regions ? How, I say, do they know that they were very
learned, and have lost their knowledge by the hindrance
which their bodies afford them ? For of this very thing
also they should have been ignorant, whether their union
with the body had brought any stain upon them; for to
know what you were, and what to-day you are not, is no
sign that you have lost your memory,3 but a proof and evi-
dence that it is quite sound.4

29. Now, since it is so, cease, I pray you, cease to rate
trifling and unimportant things at immense values. Cease
to place man in the upper ranks, since he is of the lowest ;
and in the highest orders, seeing that his person only is
taken account of,5 that he is needy, poverty-stricken in his
house and dwelling,6 and [was] never entitled to be declared
of illustrious descent. For while, as just men and upholders
of righteousness, you should have subdued pride and arro-
gance, by the evils7 of which we are all uplifted and puffed
up with empty vanity; you not only hold that these evils
arise naturally, but — and this is much worse — you have also
added causes by which vice should increase, and wickedness
remain incorrigible. For what man is there, although of a
disposition which ever shuns what is of bad repute and
shameful, who, when he hears it said by very wise men that
the soul is immortal, and not subject to the decrees of the
fates,8 would not throw himself headlong into all kinds of

1 Lit., " of immortality." 2 Cf. ch. xvi. p. 82.

3 Lit., " of a lost memory." * Lit., " of [a memory] preserved."

6 Capite cum censeatur.

6 Lit., " poor in hearth, and of a poor hut."

7 So the MS., reading mails, for which Ursinus suggested alis, "on the
wings of which."

8 i.e. to death.

96 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

vice, [and] fearlessly1 engage in and set about unlawful
things? [who] would not, in short, gratify his desires in all
things demanded by his unbridled lust, strengthened even,
further by its security and freedom from punishment ? 2
For what will hinder him from doing so? The fear of a
power above and divine judgment ? And how shall he be
overcome by any fear or dread who has been persuaded that
he is immortal, just as the supreme God himself, and that
no sentence can be pronounced upon him by God, seeing
that there is the same immortality in both, and that the one
immortal being cannot be troubled by the other, which is
[only] its equal ? 3

30. But [will he not be terrified by]* the punishments in
Hades, of which we have heard, assuming also [as they do]
many forms of torture ? And who5 will be so senseless and
ignorant of consequences,6 as to believe that to imperishable
spirits either the darkness of Tartarus, or rivers of fire, or
marshes with miry abysses, or wheels sent whirling through
the air,7 can in any wise do harm ? For that which is
beyond reach, and not subject to the laws of destruction,
though it be surrounded by all the flames of the raging
streams, be rolled in the mire, overwhelmed by the fall of
overhanging rocks and by the overthrow of huge mountains,

1 The MS. reads securus, intrepidus — "heedless, fearless;" the former
word, however, being marked as a gloss. It is rejected in all edd.,
except LB.

2 Lit., " by the freedom of impunity."

8 Lit., " the one [immortality] ... in respect of the equality of con-
dition of the other " — nee in alterius [immortalitatis] altera [immortali-
tatas] possit tequalitate conditionis vexari ; the reference being clearly to
the immediately preceding clause, with which it is so closely connected
logically and grammatically. Orelli, however, would supply anima, XTTO
TOV xoivov, as he puts it, of which nothing need be said. Meursius, with
customary boldness, emends nee vi alterius altera, "nor by the power of
one can the other," etc.

4 So the ellipse is usually supplied, but it seems simpler and is more
natural thus : "But punishments [have been] spoken of" (memoratie), etc.

" So MS. and Oehler, for which the edd. read ec quis, " will any one."

6 Lit., " the consequences of things."

7 Lit., "the moving of wheels whirling."

BOOK IT.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 97

must remain safe and untouched without suffering any
deadly harm.

Moreover, that conviction not only leads on to wickedness,
from the very freedom to sin [which it suggests], but even
takes away the ground of philosophy itself, and asserts that
it is vain to undertake its study, because of the difficulty of
the work, which leads to no result. For if it is true that
souls know no end, and are ever1 advancing with all gene-
rations, what danger is there in giving themselves up to the
pleasures of sense — despising and neglecting the virtues by
[regard to] which life is more stinted [in its pleasures], and
[becomes] less attractive — and in letting loose their bound-
less lust to range eagerly and unchecked through 2 all kinds
of debauchery? [Is it the danger] of being worn out by
such pleasures, and corrupted by vicious effeminacy f And
how can that be corrupted which is immortal, which
always exists, and [is] subject to no suffering1? [Is it the
danger] of being polluted by foul and base deeds'? And
how can that be defiled which has no corporeal substance ;
or where can corruption seat itself, where there is no place
on which the mark of this very corruption should fasten ?

But again, if souls draw near to the gates of death,3
as is laid down in the doctrine of Epicurus, in this case,
too, there is no sufficient reason why philosophy should
be sought out, even if it is true that by it4 souls are
cleansed and made pure from all uncleanness.5 For if

1 Lit., " in the unbroken course of ages"—perpetuitate asvorum.

2 Lit., " and to scatter the unbridled eagerness of boundless lust
through," etc.

3 Lucretius (iii. 417 sqq.) teaches at great length that the soul and
mind are mortal, on the ground that they consist of atoms smaller than
those of vapour, so that, like it, on the breaking of their case, they
will be scattered abroad ; next, on the ground of the analogy between
them and the body in regard to disease, suffering, etc. ; of their igno-
rance of the past, and want of developed qualities ; and finally, on the
ground of the adaptation of the soul to the body, as of a fish to the sea,
so that life under other conditions would be impossible.

4 The MS. and first four edd. read has, "that these souls," etc. ; in the
other edd., hoc is received as above from the margin of Ursinus.

5 Cf. Plato. Phsedo (st. p. 64 sq.), where death is spoken of as only a
ARNOB. U

98 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boon 11.

they all1 die, and even in the body2 the feeling characte-
ristic of life perishes, and is lost ;3 it is not only a very great
mistake, but [shows] stupid blindness, to curb innate desires,
to restrict your mode of life within narrow limits, not yield
to your inclinations, and do what our passions have de-
manded and urged, since no rewards await you for so great
toil when the day of death comes, and you shall be freed
from the bonds of the body.

31. A certain neutral character, then, and undecided
and doubtful nature of the soul, has made room for philo-
sophy, and found out a reason for its being sought after :
while, that is, that fellow4 is full of dread because of evil
deeds of which he is guilty ; another conceives great hopes
if he shall do no evil, and pass his life in obedience to 5 duty
and justice. Thence it is that among learned men, and
[men] endowed with excellent abilities, there is strife as to
the nature of the soul, and some say that it is subject to
death, and cannot take upon itself the divine substance ;
while others [maintain] that it is immortal, and cannot sink
under the power of death.6 But this is brought about by
the law of [the soul's] neutral character :7 because, on the
one hand, arguments present themselves to the one party by
which it is found that the soul 8 is capable of suffering, and
perishable ; and, on the other hand, are not wanting to their

carrying further of that separation of the soul from the pleasures and im-
perfections of the body which the philosopher strives to effect in this life.
1 Lit., " in common." 2 PL

3 This refers to the second argument of Lucretius noticed above.

4 i.e. the abandoned and dissolute immortal spoken of in last chapter.

5 Lit., "with." 6 Lit., " degenerate into mortal nature."

7 Arnobius seems in this chapter to refer to the doctrine of the Stoics,
that the soul must be material, because, unless body and soul were of one
substance, there could be no common feeling or mutual affection (so
Cleanthes in Nemes. de Nat. Horn. ii. p. 33) ; and to that held by some
of them, that only the souls of the wise remained after death, and these
only till the conflagration (Stob. Eel. Phys. p. 372) which awaits the
world, and ends the Stoic great year or cycle. Others, however, held
that the souls of the wise became daemons and demigods (Diog. Laert.
vii. 157 and 151).

8 Lit., "they"— eas.

BOOK ii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERS US GENTES. 99

opponents, by which it is shown that the soul is divine and
immortal.

32. Since these things are so, and we have been taught
by the greatest teacher that souls are set not far from the
gaping1 jaws of death; that they can, nevertheless, have
their lives prolonged by the favour and kindness of the
Supreme Ruler, if only they try and study to know him (for
the knowledge of him is a kind of vital leaven2 and cement
to bind together that which would otherwise fly apart), — let
them,3 then, laying aside their savage and barbarous nature,
return to gentler ways, that they may be able to be ready
for that which shall be given.4 What reason is there that
we should be considered by you brutish, as it were, and
stupid, if we have yielded and given ourselves up to God
our deliverer, because of these fears ? We often seek out
remedies for wounds and the poisoned bites of serpents, and
defend ourselves by means of thin plates5 sold by Psylli6 or
Marsi, and other hucksters 7 and impostors ; and that we
may not be inconvenienced by cold or intense heat,8 we
provide with anxious and careful diligence coverings in9
houses and clothing.

1 Lit., " from the gapings and," etc.

2 There may be here some echo of the words (John xvii. 3), " This is
eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God," etc. ; but
there is certainly not sufficient similarity to found a direct reference on,
as has been done by Orelli and others.

3 i.e. souls.

4 This passage presents no difficulty in itself, its sense being obviously
that, as by God's grace life is given to those who serve him, we must
strive to fit ourselves to receive his blessing. The last words, however,
have seemed to some fraught with mystery, and have been explained by
Heraldus at some length as a veiled or confused reference to the Lord's
Supper, as following upon baptism and baptismal regeneration, which,
he supposes, are referred to in the preceding words, " laying aside," etc.

5 These "thin plates," landnse, Orelli has suggested, were amulets
worn as a charm against serpents.

6 us. Phyllis.

7 So the edd., reading instit-oribus for the MS. instit-ut-orilus,
" makers."

8 Lit., " that colds and violent suns may not," etc,
» Lit., " of."

100 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boo* n.

33. Seeing that the fear of death, that is, the ruin of our
souls, menaces1 us, in what are we not acting, as we all are
wont, from a sense of what will be to our advantage,2 in that
we hold him fast who assures us that he will be our de-
liverer from such danger, embrace [him], and entrust our
souls to his care,3 if only that 4 interchange is right ? You
rest the salvation of your souls on yourselves, and are assured
that by your own exertions alone 5 you become gods ; but we,
on the contrary, hold out no hope to ourselves from our own
weakness, for we see that our nature has no strength, and is
overcome by its own passions in every strife for anything.6
You think that, as soon as you pass away, freed from the
bonds of your fleshly members, you will find wings7 with
which you may rise to heaven and soar to the stars. We shun
such presumption, and do not think8 that it is in our power
to reach the abodes9 above, since we have no certainty as to
this even, whether we deserve to receive life and be freed
from the law of death. You suppose that without the aid of
others10 you will return to the master's palace as if to your
own home, no one hindering [you] ; but we, on the contrary,
neither have any expectation that this can be unless by [the
will of] the Lord of all, nor think -that so much power and
licence are given to any man.

34. Since this is the case, what, pray, is so unfair as that
we should be looked on by you as silly in that readiness
of belief [at which you scoff], while we see that you both

1 Lit., " is set before."

2 So the MS., first ed., Gelenius, Canterus, Hildebrand, reading ex corn-
modi sensu, for which all the other edd., following Ursinus and Meursius,
read ex communi — " from common sense," i.e. wisely.

3 Perhaps, as Orelli evidently understands it, " prefer him to our own
souls " — animis prseponimus.

4 So Oehler, reading ea for the MS. ut, omitted in all edd.

5 Lit., " by your own and internal exertion."

6 Lit., " of things." 7 Lit., " wings will be at hand."

8 The MS. reads di-cimus, "say; " corrected du, as above.

9 The first four edd. read res, " things above," for which Stewechius
reads, as above, sedes.

10 Sponte.

BOOK ii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 101

have like beliefs, and entertain the same hopes ? If we are
thought deserving of ridicule because we hold out to our-
selves such a hope, the same ridicule awaits you too, who
claim for yourselves the hope of immortality. If you hold
and follow a rational course, grant to us also a share in it.
If Plato in the Phwdrus* or another of this band [of philo-
sophers], had promised these joys to us — that is, a way to
escape death, or were able to provide it and bring [us] to the
end which he had promised,2 it would have been fitting that
we should seek to honour him from whom we look for so
great a gift and favour. Now, since Christ has not only pro-
mised it, but also shown by his virtues, [which were] so great,
that it can be made good, what strange thing do we do, and
on what grounds are we charged with folly, if we bow down
and worship his name3 and majesty from whom we expect [to
receive] both [these blessings], that we may at once escape
a death of suffering, and be enriched with eternal life ?4

35. But, say [my opponents], if souls are mortal and5 of
neutral character, how can they from their neutral pro-
perties become immortal ? If we should say that we do not
know this, and only believe it because said by6 [one] mightier
[than we], when will our readiness of belief seem mistaken
if we believe7 that to the almighty King nothing is hard,

1 Here, as in c. 7, n. 3, p. 69, the edd. read Phsedone, with the excep-
tion of the first ed. LB., Hildebrand, and Oehler, who follow the MS. as
above.

2 Lit., "to the end of promising."

3 Meursius suggests mtmini, "deity," on which it may be well to
remark once for all, that nomen and numen are in innumerable places
interchanged in one or other of the edd. The change, however, is
usually of so little moment, that no further notice will be taken of it.

4 So the MS., according to Rigaltius and Hildebrand, reading vitae
ssternitate, while Crusius asserts that the MS. gives vita et — " with life
and eternity."

5 The MS. reading is, mvrtalis est qualitatis. The first five edd. merely
drop est—"oi mortal, of neutral," etc.; LB. and the others read, es et,
as above.

6 Lit., "heard from."

7 So the MS., according to Crusius, the edd. reading cred-id-imus —
" have believed."

102 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK IL

nothing difficult, and that1 what is impossible to us is pos-
sible to him and at his command ?2 For is there [anything]
which may withstand his will, or does it not follow8 of
necessity that what he has willed [must] be done ? Are we
to infer from our distinctions what either can or cannot be
done ; and are we not to consider that our reason is as mortal
as we ourselves are, and is of no importance with the Supreme?
And yet, O ye who do not believe that the soul is of a
neutral character, and that it is held on the line midway
between life and death, are not all whatever whom fancy
supposes to exist, gods, angels, daemons, or whatever else is
their name, themselves too of a neutral character, and liable
to change4 in the uncertainty of their future?5 For if we
all agree that there is one Father of all, [who] alone [is] im-
mortal and unbegotten, and [if] nothing at all is found before
him which could be named,6 it follows as a consequence that
all these whom the imagination of men believes to be gods,
have been either begotten by him or produced at his bidding.
Are they7 produced and begotten? they are also later in
order and time : if later in order and time, they must have an
origin, and beginning of birth and life ; but that which has
an entrance [into] and beginning of life in its first stages, it
of necessity follows, should have an end also.

36. But the gods are said to be immortal. Not by nature,
then, but by the goodwill and favour of God their father.
In the same way, then, in which the boon8 of immortality is

1 Lit., " if [we believe] that."

2 So the MS., reading ad modum obsecutionis paratum — " prepared to
the mode of compliance ;" for which the edd. read adm. executioni —
" quite prepared for performing," except Hildebrand, who gives adm.
obsecutioni — " for obedience."

3 So the MS., according to Crusius, but all edd. read sequ-a-tur (for i)
— " Is there anything which he has willed which it does not follow," etc.

4 So all edd., reading mutabiles, except the two Roman edd. and Oehler,
who gives, as the reading of the MS. nu. — " tottering."

6 Lit., " in the doubtful condition of their lot."

6 Lit., " which may have been of a name."

7 LB., followed by the later edd., inserted si, "if they are," which is
certainly more consistent with the rest of the sentence.

8 The MS. reading is utterly corrupt and meaningless — immortal itatis

BOOK ii.J AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 103

God's gift to [these who were] assuredly produced,1 will lie
deign to confer eternal life upon souls also, although fell
death seems able to cut them off and blot them out of exist-
ence in utter annihilation.2 The divine Plato, many of
whose thoughts are worthy of God, and not such as the
vulgar hold, in that discussion and treatise entitled the
Timceus, says that the gods and the world are corruptible
by nature, and in no wise beyond the reach of death, but
that their being is ever maintained3 by the will of God, [their]
king and prince : 4 for that that [even] which has been duly
clasped and bound together by the surest bands is preserved
[only] by God's goodness ; and that by no other than5 by
him who bound [their elements] together can they both be
dissolved if necessary, and have the command given which pre-
serves their being." If this is the case, then, and it is not fitting
to think or believe otherwise, why do you wonder that we
speak of the soul as neutral in its character, when Plato says
that it is so even with the deities,7 but that their life is kept

largiter est donum del certa prolatis. Gelenius, followed by Canterus,
Oberthiir, and Orelli, emended largi-tio . . . certe, as above. The two
Roman edd. read, -tatem largitus . . . certam — " bestowed, assured im-
mortality as God's gift on," etc.

1 i.e., who must therefore have received it if they have it at all.

2 Lit., " out, reduced to nothing with annihilation, not to be returned
from."

3 Lit., " they are held in a lasting bond," i.e. of being.

* Plato makes the supreme God, creator of the inferior deities, assure
these lesser gods that their created nature being in itself subject to
dissolution, his will is a surer ground on which to rely for immortality,
than the substance or mode of their own being (Timseus, st. p. 41 ; trans-
lated by Cicero, de Univ. xi., and criticised de Nat. Dear. i. 8 and iii. 12).

5 The MS. and both Roman edd. read neque ullo ab-olitio-nis unintel-
ligibly, for which Gelenius proposed nexusque dbolitione — " and by the
destruction of the bond ;" but the much more suitable reading in the
margin of Ursinus, translated above, ullo ab alia nis-i, has been adopted
by later edd.

6 Lit., " be gifted with a saving order." So the MS., reading salutari
iussione, followed by both Roman edd. ; LB. and Orelli read vinctione
— "bond;" Gelenius, Canterus, Elmenh., and Oberthuer, m-issione —
" dismissal."

7 Lit., " that to the gods themselves the natures are intermediate."

104 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK ir.

up by God's1 grace, without break or end ? For if by chance
you knew it not, and because of its novelty it was unknown
to you before, [now, though] late, receive and learn from him
who knows and has made it known, Christ, that souls are
not the children of the supreme ruler, and did not begin to
be self-conscious, and to be spoken of in their own special
character after being created by him ;2 but that some other is
their parent, far enough removed from the chief in rank and
power, of his court, however, and distinguished by his high
and exalted birthright.

37. But if souls were, as is said, the Lord's children, and
begotten by3 the supreme power, nothing would have been
wanting to make them perfect, [as they would have been]
born with the most perfect excellence : they would all have
had one mind, and [been of] one accord ; they would always
dwell in the royal palace ; and would not, passing by the
seats of bliss in which they had learned and kept in mind the
noblest teachings, rashly seek these regions of earth, that *
they might live enclosed in gloomy bodies amid phlegm and
blood, among these bags of filth and most disgusting5 vessels
of urine. But, [an opponent will say], it was necessary that
these parts too should be peopled, and therefore Almighty
God sent souls hither to [form] some colonies, as it were.
And of what use are men to the world, and on account of
what are they necessary,6 so that they may not be believed to

1 Lit., " supreme " — principali.

2 Cf. i. 48. On this passage Orelli quotes Irenseus, i. 21, where are
enumerated several gnostic theories of the creation of the world and men
by angels, who are themselves created by the "one unknown Father."
Aruobius is thought, both by Orelli and others, to share in these opinions,
and in this discussion to hint at them, but obscurely, lest his cosmology
should be confounded by the Gentiles with their own polytheistic system.
It seems much more natural to suppose that we have here the indefinite
statement of opinions not thoroughly digested.

3 Lit., " a generation of."

4 Canterus, Ehnenhorst, Oberthuer, and Orelli omit ut, which is re-
tained as above by the rest.

5 Lit., " obscene."

6 Elmenhorst endeavours to show that Arnobius coincides in this argu-
ment with the Epicureans, by quoting Lucr. v. 165 sqq. andLact. vii. 5,

BOOK ii.] A RNOBIUS A D VERS US GENTES. 1 05

have been destined to live here and be the tenants of an
earthly body for no purpose ? They have a share, [my oppo-
nent says,] in perfecting the completeness of this immense
mass, and without their addition this whole universe is in-
complete and imperfect. What then? If there were not
men, would the world cease to discharge its functions ? would
the stars not go through their changes'? would there not
be summers and winters? would the blasts of the winds be
lulled? and from the clouds gathered and hanging [over-
head] would not the showers come down upon the earth to
temper droughts ? But now1 all things must go on in their
own courses, and not give up following the arrangement
established by nature, even if there should be no name of
man heard in the world, and this earth should be still with
the silence of an unpeopled desert. How then is it alleged
that it was necessary that an inhabitant should be given to
these regions, since it is clear that by man comes nothing
to [aid in] perfecting the world, and that all his exertions
regard his private convenience always, and never cease to
aim at his own advantage ?

38. For, to begin with what is important, what advantage
is it to the world that the mightiest kings are here ? What,
that there are tyrants, lords, [and] other innumerable and
very illustrious powers'? What, that there are generals of
the greatest experience in war, skilled in taking cities ;
soldiers steady and utterly invincible in battles of cavalry,
or in fighting hand to hand on foot ? What, that there
are orators, grammarians, poets, writers, logicians, musi-
cians, ballet-dancers, mimics, actors, singers, trumpeters, flute
and reed players? What, that there are runners, boxers,
charioteers, vaulters,2 walkers on stilts, rope-dancers, jugglers ?

where the Epicurean argument is brought forward, What profit has God
in man, that he should have created him ? In doing this, it seems not
to have been observed that the question asked by Arnobius is a very
different one : What place has man in the world, that God should be
supposed to have sent him to fill it ?

1 i.e. so far from this being the case.

a i.e. from one horse to another — desultores.

10G THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK ir.

What, that there are dealers in salt fish, salters, fishmongers,
perfumers, goldsmiths, bird-catchers, weavers of winnowing
fans and baskets of rushes ? What, that there are fullers,
workers in wool, embroiderers, cooks, confectioners, dealers
in mules, pimps, butchers, harlots ? What, that there are
other kinds of dealers? What do [the other kinds] of pro-
fessors and arts (for the enumeration of which all life would
be [too] short) contribute to the plan and constitution1 of the
world, that we should believe2 that it could not have been
founded without men, and would not attain its complete-
ness without the addition of 3 a wretched and useless being's
exertion ? 4

39. But perhaps, [some one will urge,] the Ruler of the
world sent hither souls sprung from himself for this purpose
— a very rash thing for a man to say 5 — that they which had
been divine6 with him, not coming into contact with the body
and earthly limits,7 should be buried in the germs of men,
spring from the womb, burst into and keep up the silliest
wailings, draw the breasts in sucking, besmear and bedaub
themselves with their own filth, then be hushed by the sway-
ing8 of the frightened nurse and by the sound of rattles.9
Did he send souls [hither] for this reason, that they which
had been but now sincere and of blameless virtue should learn

1 Rationibus et constitutionibus.

2 Lit., " it should be believed."

8 Lit., " unless there were joined."

4 So the the MS., reading contentio, which Orelli would understand as
meaning " contents," which may be correct. LB. reads conditio —
"condition," ineptly; and Ursinus in the margin, completio — "the fill-
ing up."

5 So the later edd., from the margin of Ursinus, reading quod temeri-
tatis est maximal for the MS. quern — " whom it shows the greatest rashness
to speak of."

6 Lit., " goddesses."

7 So Gelenius (ace. to Orelli), reading as in the margin of Ursinus,
terrense circumscriptionis, for the unintelligible reading of the MS., teme-
rariae, retained in both Roman edd., Canterus, and (ace. to Oehler)
Gelenius. LB. reads metctrise — "a limiting by boundaries."

8 Lit., " motions."

6 Of. Lucr. v. 229 sq. The same idea comes up again in iv. 21.

BOOK ii.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 107

as1 men to feign, to dissemble, to lie, to cheat,2 to deceive, to
entrap with a flatterer's abjectness ; to conceal one thing in
the heart,3 express another in the countenance ; to ensnare, to
beguile 4 the ignorant with crafty devices, to seek out poisons
by means of numberless arts [suggested] by bad feelings,
and to be fashioned5 with deceitful changeableness to suit
circumstances ? Was it for this he sent souls, that, living
[till then] in calm and undisturbed tranquillity, they might
find in 6 their bodies causes by which to become fierce and
savage, cherish hatred and enmity, make war upon each other,
subdue and overthrow states ; load themselves with, and give
themselves up to the yoke of slavery ; and finally, be put the
one in the other's power, having changed the condition 7 in
which they were born ? Was it for this he sent souls, that,
being made unmindful of the truth, and forgetful of what
God was, they should make supplication to images which
cannot move ; address as superhuman deities pieces of wood,
brass, and stones ; ask aid of them 8 with the blood of slain
animals; make no mention of Himself: nay more, that some
of them should doubt their own existence, or deny altogether
that anything exists? Was it for this he sent souls, that
they which in their own abodes had been of one mind,
equals in intellect and knowledge, after that they put on
mortal forms, should be divided by differences of opinion ;
should have different views as to what is just, useful, and
right ; should contend about the objects of desire and aver-

1 Lit., " in."

2 According to Hildebrand, the MS. reads dissimular-ent circumscribere,
so that, by merely dropping nt, he reads, " to dissemble and cheat ;" but
according to Crusius, iri is found in the MS. between these two words,
so that by prefixing m Sabseus in the first ed. read m-ent-iri as above,
followed by all other edd.

3 Lit, "to roll ... in the mind."

4 Rigaltius and Hildebrand regard decipere as a gloss.

5 So the MS., reading formari, followed by Hildebrand and Oehler; but
all the other edd. give the active form, -are.

6 Lit, "from." 7 The condition, i.e., of freedom.

8 LB., seemingly received by Orelli, though not inserted into his
text, reads poscerent eos for the MS. -entur, which Hildebrand modifies
-ent ea as above.

108 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boos n.

sion ; should define the highest good and greatest evil diffe-
rently ; that, in seeking to know the truth of things, they
should be hindered by their obscurity ; and, as if bereft of
eyesight, should see nothing clearly,1 and, wandering from
the truth,2 should be led through uncertain bypaths of
fancy ?

40. Was it for this he sent souls [hither], that while the
other creatures are fed by what springs up spontaneously,
and is produced without being sown, and do not seek for
themselves the protection or covering of houses or garments,
they should be under the sad necessity 3 of building houses
for themselves at very great expense and with never-ending
toils, preparing coverings for their limbs, making different
[kinds of] furniture for the wants4 of daily life, borrowing
help for5 their weakness from the dumb creatures ; using vio-
lence to the earth that it might not give forth its own herbs,
but might send up the fruits required ; and when they had
put forth all their strength 6 in subduing the earth, should
be compelled to lose the hope with which they had laboured7
through blight, hail, drought; and at last forced by8 hunger
to throw themselves on human bodies ; and when set free, to
be parted from their human forms by a wasting sickness ?
Was it for this that they which, while they abode with him,
had never had any longing for property, should have become
exceedingly covetous, and with insatiable craving be inflamed
to an eager desire of possessing; that they should dig up
lofty mountains, and turn the unknown bowels of the earth
into materials, and [to] purposes of a different kind ; should
force their way to remote nations at the risk of life, and, in
exchanging goods, always catch at a high price [for what
they sell], and a low one9 [for what they buy], take interest

1 Lit., " certain." 2 Lit, "by error."

3 Lit., " the sad necessity should be laid upoii them, that," etc.

4 Lit., " for the want of daily things," diurnorum egestati, for which
Stewechius would read diurna egestate — "from daily necessity."

5 Lit., " of." 6 Lit., " poured forth all their blood."
7 Lit., " of their labour." 8 Lit, " at last by force of."

9 So the MS. and edd., reading vilitatem, for which Meursius proposed
very needlessly utilitatem — "aud at an advantage."

BOOK n.] AENOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 109

at greedy and excessive rates, and add to the number of
their sleepless nights [spent] in reckoning up thousands1
wrung from the life-blood of wretched men ; should be ever
extending the limits of their possessions, and, though they
were to make whole provinces one estate, should weary the
forum with suits for one tree, for [one] furrow ; should hate
rancorously their friends and brethren ?

41. Was it for this he sent souls, that they which shortly
before had been gentle and ignorant [of what it is] to be
moved by fierce passions, should build for themselves markets
and amphitheatres, places of blood and open wickedness, in
the one of which they should see men devoured and torn in
pieces by wild beasts, [and] themselves slay others for no
demerit but to please and gratify the spectators,2 and should
spend those very days on which such wicked deeds were
done in general enjoyment, and keep holiday with festive
gaiety ; while in the other, again, they should tear asunder
the flesh of wretched animals, some snatch one part, others
another, as dogs and vultures do, should grind [them] with
their teeth, and give to their utterly insatiable3 maw, and
that, surrounded by4 faces so fierce and savage, those should
bewail their lot whom the straits of poverty withheld from
such repasts ;6 that their life should be6 happy and prosperous
while such barbarous doings defiled their mouths and face ?
"Was it for this he sent souls, that, forgetting their import-
ance and dignity [as] divine, they should acquire gems,

1 So, adhering very closely to the MS., which gives e-t sanguine suppu-
tandis augere-t insomnia milibus, the t of e-t being omitted and n inserted
by all. The first five edd. read, -tandi se angerent insania : millibus —
"harass themselves with the madness of reckoning; by miles should
extend," etc., — the only change in Heraldus and Orelli being a return
to insomnia — '' harass with sleeplessness," etc.

8 So restored by Cujacius, followed by LB. and Orelli, reading in
r/rat-i-am (MS. wants t) voluptatemque, while the first five edd. merely
drop -que — " to the grateful pleasure," etc.

3 Lit., " most cruel."

4 Lit., " among," in oris, the MS. reading, and that of the first four
edd., for which the others have received from the margin of Ursinus
moribus — " [indulging] in so fierce and savage customs."

6 Lit.. " tables." • Lit., " they should live."

110 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

precious stones, pearls, at the expense of their purity ; should
entwine their necks with these, pierce the tips of their ears,
bind l their foreheads with fillets, seek for cosmetics2 to deck
their bodies,3 darken their eyes with henna ; nor, though in
the forms of men, blush to curl their hair with crisping-pins,
to make the skin of the body smooth, to walk with bare
knees, and with every other [kind of] wantonness, both to
lay aside the strength of their manhood, and to grow in
effeminacy to a woman's habits and luxury?

42. Was it for this he sent souls, that some should infest
the highways and roads,4 others ensnare the unwary, forge5
false wills, prepare poisoned draughts ; that they should
break open houses by night, tamper [with slaves], steal and
drive away, not act uprightly, and betray [their trust] per-
fidiously; that they should strike out delicate dainties for
the palate ; that in cooking fowls they should know how
to catch the fat as it drips ; that they should make crack-
nels and sausages,6 force-meats, tit-bits, Lucanian sausages,
with these 7 a sow's udder and iced 8 haggises ? Was it
for this he sent souls, that beings9 of a sacred and august
race should here practise singing and piping ; that they

1 Lit., " lessen."

2 In the y.s. this clause follows the words "loss of their purity,"
where it is very much in the way. Orelli has followed Heraldus in
disposing of it as above, while LB. inserts it after " tips of their ears."
The rest adhere to the arrangement of the MS., Ursinus suggesting
instead of his — " with these," catenis — " with chains ;" Heraldus, linis —
"with strings [of pearls] ;" Stewechius, teeniis — "with fillets."

3 So LB. and Orelli, reading con-fa-iendis corporibvs for the MS.
con-sp-iendis, for which the others read -spic-, " to win attention." A
conjecture by Oudendorp, brought forward by Orelli, is worthy of
notice — con-spu-endis, " to cover," i.e. so as to hide defects.

* Lit., " passages of ways." 6 Lit., " substitute."

6 So the later edd., reading lotulos; the MS. and early edd. give
loletos — " mushrooms."

7 For his, Heinsius proposes hiris — " with the intestines."

8 Lit., "in a frozen condition." As to the meaning of this there is
difference of opinion : some supposing that it means, as above, preserved
by means of ice, or at least frozen ; while others interpret figuratively,
" as hard as ice."

8 Lit, " things "— res.

BOOK n. J A RNOBIUS A D VERS US GENTES. 1 1 1

should swell out their cheeks in blowing the flute ; that they
should take the lead in singing impure songs, and raising
the loud din of the castanets,1 by which another crowd of
souls should be led in their wantonness to abandon them-
selves to clumsy motions, to dance and sing, form rings of
dancers, and finally, raising their haunches and hips, float
along with a tremulous motion of the loins ?

Was it for this he sent souls, that in men they should
become impure, in women harlots, players on the triangle 2
and psaltery; that they should prostitute their bodies for
hire, should abandon themselves to the lust of all,3 ready in
the brothels, to be met with in the stews,4 ready to submit to
anything, prepared to do violence to their mouth even ? 5

43. What say you, O offspring and descendants of the
Supreme Deity ? Did these souls, then, wise, and sprung
from the first causes, become acquainted with such forms of
baseness, crime, and bad feeling ? and were they ordered to
dwell here,6 and be clothed with the garment of the human
body, in order that they might engage in, might practise
these evil [deeds], and that very frequently ? And is there a
man with any sense of reason who thinks that the world was

1 Scdbilla were a kind of rattles or castanets moved by the feet.

2 Sambuca, not corresponding to the modern triangle, but a stringed
instrument of that shape. Its notes were shrill and disagreeable, and
those who played on it of indifferent character.

3 So the MS. and first four edd., reading virilitatem sui populo publi-
carent. Meursius emended utilitatem — "made common the use," etc. ;
and Orelli, from the margin of Ursinus, vilitatem — " their vileness."

4 The MS. reads infornicibus obvi-t-as, which, dropping t, is the read-
ing translated, and was received by Elmenhorst, LB., and Hildebrand,
from the margin of Ursinus. The other edd. insert nc before t — " bound."

5 The translation does not attempt to bring out the force of the words
ad oris stuprum paratte, which are read by Orelli after Ursinus and
Gelenius. The text is so corrupt, and the subject so obscene, that a
bare reference to the practice may be sufficient.

6 The MS. reads, habitare atque habitare juss-e-r-unL All edd. omit
the first two words, the first ed. without further change ; but the active
verb is clearly out of place, and therefore all other edd. read jussss sunt,
as above. Oehler, however, from habitare omitted by the others, would
emend aditare, " to approach," — a conjecture with very little to recom-
mend it.

112 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK rr.

established because of them, and not rather that it was set
up as a seat and home, in which every [kind of] wickedness
should be committed daily, all evil deeds be done, plots, im-
postures, frauds, covetousness, robberies, violence, impiety,
[all that is] presumptuous, indecent, base, disgraceful,1 [and]
all the other evil deeds which men devise over all the earth
with guilty purpose, and contrive for each other's ruin ?

44. But, you say, they came of their own accord, not
sent2 by their lord. And3 where was the Almighty Creator,
where the authority of his royal and exalted place,4 to pre-
vent their departure, and not suffer them to fall into dan-
gerous pleasures ? For if he knew that by change of place
they would become base — and, as the arranger of all things,5
he must have known — or that anything would reach them
from without which would make them forget their greatness
and moral dignity (a thousand times would I beg of him to
pardon [my words]), the cause of all is no other than him-
self, since he allowed them to have freedom to wander6 who
he foresaw would not abide by their state of innocence ; and
thus it is brought about that it does not matter whether they
came of their own accord, or obeyed his command, since in
not preventing what should have .been prevented, by his
inaction he made the guilt his own, and permitted it before
[it was done] by neglecting to withhold them [from action].

45. But let this monstrous and impious fancy be put7 far
[from us], that Almighty God, the creator and framer, the
author8 of things great and invisible, should be believed to
have begotten souls so fickle, with no seriousness, firmness,
and steadiness, prone to vice, inclining to all kinds of sins ;

1 These are all substantives in the original.

2 So the us., reading non missione — "not by the sending;" but, unac-
countably enough, all edd. except Hildebrand and Oehler read jussior.e —
" not by the command."

8 So the MS. * Lit., "royal sublimity." 6 Lit., "causes."

6 The MS. and both Roman edd. read abscondere — " to hide," for which
the other edd. read, as above, abscedere, from the margin of Ursinus.

7 Lit., " go."

8 By Hildebrand and Oehler, procreator is with reason regarded as a
gloes.

-J AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 113

and while he knew that they were such and of this character,
to have bid1 them enter into bodies, imprisoned in which,2
they should live exposed to the storms and tempests of for-
tune every day, and now do mean things, now submit to lewd
treatment; that they might perish by shipwreck, accidents,
destructive conflagrations ; that poverty might oppress some,
beggary, others ; that some might be torn in pieces by wild
beasts, others perish by the venom of flies;3 that some might
limp in walking, others lose their sight, others be stiff with
cramped4 joints ; in fine, that they should be exposed to all
the diseases which the wretched and pitiable human race en-
dures with agony caused by5 different sufferings; then that,
forgetting that they have one origin, one father and head,
they should shake to their foundations and violate the rights
of kinship, should overthrow their cities, lay waste their lands
as enemies, enslave the free, do violence to maidens and to
other men's wives, hate each other, envy the joys and good
fortune of others ; and further, all malign, carp at, and tear
each other to pieces with fiercely biting teeth.

46. But, to say the same things again and again,6 let this
belief, so monstrous and impious, be put far [from us], that
God, who preserves7 all things, the origin of the virtues and
chief in8 benevolence, and, to exalt him with human praise,

1 The MS., both Roman edd., and Hildebrand read jussisset ; but this
would throw the sentence into confusion, and the other edd. therefore
drop t.

2 LB., Hildebrand, and Oehler read quorum indu-c-tx carceribus —
"led into the prisons of which," all other edd. omitting c as above.
According to Oehler, the sis. has the former reading.

8 The MS. and both Roman edd. read in-f-ernarum paterentut alias
laniatus muscularum, which has no meaning, and is little improved by
Gelenius changing ut into Mr, as no one knows what "infernal flies"
are. LB. and Orelli, adopting a reading in the margin of Ursinus,
change intern, into ferarum, and join muse, with the words which follow
as above. Another reading, also suggested by Ursinus, seems preferable,
however, internorum . . . musculorum — "suffer rendings (i.e. spasms) of
the inner muscles."

4 Lit., "bound." 5 Lit., " dilaceration of."

6 Lit., "again and more frequently." '' Lit., "the salvation of."

8 Lit, " height of."

A KNOB. H

114 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

most wise, just, making all things perfect, and that perma-
nently,1 either made anything which was imperfect and not
quite correct,2 or was the cause of misery or danger to any
being, or arranged, commanded, and enjoined the very acts
in which man's life is passed and employed to flow from
his arrangement. These things are unworthy of3 him, and
weaken the force of his greatness; and so far from his
being believed to be their author, whoever imagines that
man is sprung from Him is guilty of blasphemous impiety,
[man,] a being miserable and wretched, who is sorry that he
exists, hates and laments his state, and understands that he
was produced for no other reason than lest evils should not
have something4 through which to spread themselves, and
that there might always be wretched ones by whose agonies
some unseen and cruel power,5 adverse to men, should be
gratified.

47. But, you say, if God is not the parent and father of
souls, by what sire have they been begotten, and how have
they been produced ? If you wish to hear unvarnished
statements not spun out with vain ostentation of words, we,
too,6 admit that we are ignorant of this, do not know it ;7 and
we hold that, to know so great a matter, is not only beyond
the reach of our weakness and frailty, but [beyond that] also
of all the powers which are in the world, and which have
usurped the place of deities in men's belief. But are we
bound to show whose they are, because we deny that they
are God's? That by no means8 follows necessarily ; for if

1 Lit., "things perfect, and preserving the measure of their complete-
ness," i.e. continuing so.

2 So the MS., LB., Oberthuer, and Oehler, reading claudum et quod
minus esset a recto. All other edd. read eminus — " at a distance from
the right."

3 Lit., " less than." 4 Lit, " material."

5 Lit., "some power latent and cruelty."

6 So the MS. and all edd. ; but Orelli would change item into iterum,
not seeing that the reference is to the indicated preference of his oppo-
nents for the simple truth.

7 Nescire Hildebrand, with good reason, considers a gloss.

• Nihil for the MS. mihi, which makes nonsense of the sentence.

BOOK IL] ARNOBWS AD VERSUS GENTES. 115

we were to deny that flies, beetles, and bugs, dormice,
weevils, and moths,1 are made by the Almighty King, we
should not be required in consequence to say who made and
formed them ; for without [incurring] any censure, we may
not know who, indeed, gave them being, and [yet] assert that
not by the Supreme2 Deity were [creatures] produced so
useless, so needless, so purposeless,3 nay more, at times even
hurtful, and causing unavoidable injuries.

48. Here, too, in like manner, when we deny that souls
are the offspring of God Supreme, it does not necessarily
follow that we are bound to declare from what parent they
have sprung, and by what causes they have been produced.
For who prevents us from being either ignorant of the source
from which they issued and came, or aware that they are
not God's descendants? By what method, you say, in what
way ? Because it is most true and certain4 that, as has been
pretty frequently said, nothing is effected, made, determined
by the Supreme, except that which it is right and fitting
should be done ; except that which is complete and entire,
and wholly perfect in its6 integrity. But further, we see
that men, that is, these very souls — for what are men but
souls bound to bodies'? — themselves show by perversely fall-
ing into6 vice, times without number, that they belong to no
patrician race, but have sprung from insignificant families.
For we see some harsh, vicious, presumptuous, rash, reckless,
blinded, false, dissemblers, liars, proud, overbearing, covet-
ous, greedy, lustful, fickle, weak, and unable to observe their
own precepts ; but they would assuredly not be [so], if their

1 This somewhat wide-spread opinion found an amusing counterpart
in the doctrines of Rorarius (mentioned by Bayle, Diet. Phil.), who
affirmed that the lower animals are gifted with reason and speech, as
we are.

2 Lit., "superior." 3 Lit., " tending to no reasons."

4 Omni vero verissimum est certoque certissimum — the superlative for
the comparative.

5 Lit., "finished with the perfection of."

6 Lit., "by perversity" — s-c-zevitate, the reading of the MS., LB.,
Orelli, Hild., and Oehler, all others omitting c — uby the rage;" except
Stewechius, who reads servitute — " slavery."

11G THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK ir.

original goodness defended1 them, and they traced their
honourable descent from the head of the universe.

49. But, you will say, there are good men also in the
world, — wise, upright, of faultless and purest morals. We
raise no question as to whether there ever were any such, in
whom this very integrity which is spoken of was in nothing
imperfect. Even if they are very honourable [men], and
have been worthy of praise, have reached the utmost height
of perfection, and their life has never wavered and sunk into
sin, yet we would have you tell us how many there are, or
have been, that we may judge from their number whether
a comparison2 has been made [which is] just and evenly
balanced.3 One, two, three, four, ten, twenty, a hundred,
yet [are they] at least limited in number, and it may be
within the reach of names.4 But it is fitting that the human
race should be rated and weighed, not by a very few good
men, but by all the rest [as well]. For the part is in the
whole, not the whole in a part ; and that which is the whole
should draw to it its parts, not the whole be brought to its
parts. For what if you were to say that a man, robbed of
the use of all his limbs, and shrieking in bitter agony,5 was
quite well, because in6 one little nail .he suffered no pain? or
that the earth is made of gold, because in one hillock there
are a few small grains from which, when dissolved, gold is
produced, and wonder excited at it when formed into a
lump1?7 The whole mass shows the nature of an element,
not particles fine as air ; nor does the sea become forthwith
sweet, if you cast or throw into [it] a few drops of less bitter
water, for that small quantity is swallowed up in its immense

1 Or, perhaps, "the goodness of the Supreme planted" — generositas
eos adsereret principalis.

2 Lit., "opposition," i.e. "the setting of one party against the other."
8 Lit., " weighed with balancing of equality."

4 Lit., " bounded by the comprehensions of names ;" i.e. possibly,
"the good are certainly few enough to be numbered, perhaps even to
be named."

5 So LB., reading ex cruciatibus for the MS. scruc. 6 Lit., " of."

7 Lit., "admiration is sought for by the putting together"— COM -
gregatione.

BOOK ii.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. Ill

mass ; and it must be esteemed, not merely of little import-
ance, but [even] of none, because, being scattered through-
out all, it is lost and cut off in the immensity of the vast
body [of water].

50. You say that there are good men in the human race ;
and perhaps, if we compare them with the very wicked, we
may be led * to believe that there are. Who are they, pray?
Tell [us]. The philosophers, I suppose, who2 assert that
they alone are most wise, and who have been uplifted
with pride from the meaning attached to this name,3 — those,
forsooth, who are striving with their passions every day,
and struggling to drive out, to expel deeply-rooted passions
from their minds by the persistent4 opposition of their better
qualities ; who, that it may be impossible for them to be led
into wickedness at the suggestion of some opportunity, shun
riches and inheritances, that they may remove 5 from them-
selves occasions of stumbling; but in doing this, and being
solicitous about it, they show very clearly that [their] souls
are, through their weakness, ready and prone to fall into vice.
In our opinion, however, that which is good naturally, does
not require to be either corrected or reproved;6 nay more,
it should not know what evil is, if the nature of each kind
would abide in its own integrity, for neither can two con-
traries be implanted in each other, nor can equality be con-
tained in inequality, nor sweetness in bitterness. He, then,

1 Lit., " a comparison of the worst may effect that we," etc.

2 So all edd. except Hildebrand, who gives as the reading of the MS.,
qni-d — " what! do they assert."

8 Lit., "by the force of," vi, — an emendation of Heraldus for the MS. in.

4 So most edd., reading pertinaci for the MS. -ium — " by the opposition
of persistent virtues," which is retained in both Roman edd., Gelenius,
Canterus, Hildebrand, and Oehler.

5 So Stewechius and later edd., reading ut . . . avferant, except Hilde-
brand, who gives as the MS. reading, et . . . -unt — " shun . . . and re-
move," etc. The first four edd. read ne . . . afferant — "that they may
not bring upon themselves," etc.

6 So the MS. and first four edd., Orelli (who, however, seems to have
meant to give the other reading), and Oehler, reading corri-p-i, for which
the others read -iyi — "corrected," except Hildebrand, who without due
reason gives -rumpi — "corrupted."

118 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

who struggles to amend the inborn depravity of his inclina-
tions, shows most clearly that he is imperfect,1 blameable,
although he may strive with all zeal and stedfastness.

51. But you laugh at our reply, because, while we deny
that souls are of royal descent, we do not, on the other hand,
say in turn from what causes and beginnings they have
sprung. But what kind of crime is it either to be ignorant
of anything, or to confess quite openly that you do not know
that of which you are ignorant ? or whether does he rather
seem to you most deserving of ridicule who assumes to him-
self no knowledge of some dark subject ; or he who thinks
that he2 knows most clearly that which transcends human
knowledge, and which has been involved in dark obscurity ?
If the nature of everything were thoroughly considered, you
too are in a position like that which you censure in our case.
For you do not say anything [which has been] ascertained
and set most clearly in the light of truth, because you say
that souls descend from the Supreme Ruler himself, and
enter into the forms of men. For you conjecture, do not
perceive 3 [this] ; surmise, do not actually know [it] ; for if
to know is to retain in the mind that which you have your-
self seen or known, not one of those- things which you affirm
can you say that you have ever seen — that is, that souls
descend from the abodes and regions above. You are there-
fore making use of conjecture, not trusting clear information.
But what is conjecture, except a doubtful imagining of things,
and directing of the mind upon nothing accessible ? He,
then, who conjectures, does not comprehend,4 nor does he
walk in the5 light of knowledge. But if this is true and

1 In the MS. imperfectum is marked as a gloss, but is retained in all
edd., while improbabilem is omitted, except in LB., when im is omitted,
and probabilem joined to the next clause — " however he may strive to be
acceptable," in order to provide an object for " strive ; " and with a simi-
lar purpose Orelli thrusts in contrarium, although it is quite clear that
the verb refers to the preceding clause, " struggles to amend."

2 The MS. reads se esse, without meaning, from which LB., followed by
Hildebrand, and Oehler derived se ex sc — "himself of himself." The
rest simply omit esse as above.

3 Lit., " hold." * Lit., " hold." • Lit., " set in the."

BOOK ii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 119

certain in the opinion of proper and very wise judges, your
conjectures, too, in which you trust, must be regarded as
[showing your] ignorance.

52. And yet, lest you should suppose that none but your-
selves can make use of conjectures and surmises, we too are
able to bring them forward as well,1 as your question is appro-
priate to either side.2 Whence, you say, are men ; and what
or whence are the souls of these men ? Whence, [we will
ask,] are elephants, bulls, stags, mules,3 asses ? Whence
lions, horses, dogs, wolves, panthers ; and what or whence
are the souls of these creatures ? For it is not credible that
from that Platonic cup,4 which Timaeus prepares and mixes,
either their souls came, or [that] the locust,6 mouse, shrew,
cockroach, frog, centipede, should be believed to have been
quickened and to live, because 6 they have a cause and origin
of birth in 7 the elements themselves, if there are [in these]
secret and very little known means 8 for producing the crea-
tures which live in each of them. For we see that some of
the wise say that the earth is mother of men, that others join
with it water,9 that others add to these breath of air, but that
some [say] that the sun is their framer, and that, having
been quickened by his rays, they are filled with the stir of
life.10 What if it is not these, and is something else, another
cause, another method, another power, in fine, unheard of

1 Lit, " utter the same [conjectures]," easdem, the reading of LB. and
Hildebrand, who says that it is so in the MS. ; while Crusius asserts that
the MS. has idem, which, with Orelli's punctuation, gives — "we have the
same power ; since it is common (i.e. a general right) to bring forth
what you ask," i.e. to put similar questions.

2 i.e. may be retorted upon you.

8 Here, as elsewhere, instead of muli, the MS. reads milvi — " kites.*1

4 Of. Plato, Timteus, st. p. 41, already referred to.

5 Or, perhaps, " cray-fish," locusta.

6 The MS. reads quidem — "indeed," retained by the first four edd., but
changed into quid — " because," by Elmenhorst, LB., and Orelli, while
Oehler suggests very happily si quidem — "if indeed," i.e. because.

7 Lit., "from." 8 Rationes. 9 Cf. chs. ix. and x.

10 Orelli, retaining this as a distinct sentence, would yet enclose it in
brackets, for what purpose does not appear ; more especially as the next
sentence follows directly from this in logical sequence.

120 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK IT.

and unknown to us by name, which may have fashioned the
human race, and connected it with things as established ; l
may it not be that men sprang up in this way, and that the
cause of their birth does not go back to the Supreme God ?
For what reason do we suppose that the great Plato had —
[a man] reverent and scrupulous in his wisdom — when he
withdrew the fashioning of man from the highest God, and
transferred it to some lesser [deities], and when he would not
have the souls of men formed2 of that pure mixture of which
he had made the soul of the universe, except that he thought
the forming of man unworthy of God, and the fashioning of
a feeble being not beseeming His greatness and excellence ?
53. Since this, then, is the case, we do nothing out of place
or foolish in believing that the souls of men are of a neutral
character, inasmuch as they have been produced by secondary
beings,3 made subject to the law of death, [and are] of little
strength, [and that] perishable ; and that they are gifted with
immortality, if 4 they rest their hope of so great a gift on
God Supreme, who alone has power to grant such [blessings],
by putting away corruption. But this, [you say,] we are
stupid in believing. What [is that] to you? [In so be-

1 Lit., "the constitutions of things."

2 Lit., "did not choose the souls of the human race to be mixtures of
the same purity," noluit, received from the margin of Ursinus by all
except the first four edd., which retain the MS. voluit — "did choose,"
which is absurd. Arnobius here refers again to the passage in the
Timasus, p. 41 sq., but to a different part, with a different purpose. He
now refers to the conclusion of the speech of the Supreme God, the first
part of which is noticed in ch. xxxvi. (cf. p. 103, n. 4). There the Creator
assures the gods he has made of immortality through his grace ; now
his further invitation that they in turn should form men is alluded to.
That they might accomplish this task, the dregs still left in the cup, in
which had been mixed the elements of the world's soul, are diluted and
given to form the souls of men, to which they attach mortal bodies.

3 Lit., " things not principal." Orelli here quotes from Tertullian,
de Anim. xxiii., a brief summary of Gnostic doctrines on these points,
which he considers Arnobius to have followed throughout this dis-
cussion.

4 Si was first inserted in LB., not being found in the MS., though
demanded by the context.

BOOK ii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 121

lieving, we act] most absurdly, sillily. In what do we injure
you, or what wrong do we do or inflict upon you, if we trust
that Almighty God will take care of us when we leave 1 our
bodies, and from the jaws of hell, as is said, deliver us ?

54. Can, then, anything be made, some one will say,
without God's will? We2 must consider carefully, and
examine with no little pains, lest, while we think that we are
honouring God3 by such a question, we fall into the opposite
sin, doing despite to his supreme majesty. In what way,
[you ask,] on what ground ? Because, if all things are
brought about by his will, and nothing in the world can
either succeed or fail contrary to his pleasure, it follows of
necessity that it should be understood that4 all evils, too,
arise by his will. But if, on the contrary, we chose to say
that he is privy to and produces no evil, not referring to him
the causes of very wicked deeds, the worst things will begin
to seem to be done either against his will, or, a monstrous
thing to say, while he knows it not, [but] is ignorant and
unaware of them. But, again, if we choose to say that
there are no evils, as we find some have believed and held,
all races will cry out against [us] and all nations together,
showing us their sufferings, and the various kinds of dangers
with which the human race is every moment 5 distressed and
afflicted. Then they will ask of us, Why, if there are no
evils, do you refrain from certain deeds and actions ? Why
do you not do all that eager lust has required or demanded ?
Why, finally, do you establish punishments by terrible laws
for the guilty ? For what more monstrous 6 act of folly can
be found than to assert that there are no evils, and [at the

1 Lit., " have begun to leave."

2 The MS. and first three edd. read vobis — " you," corrected nobis, as
above, by Ursinus.

3 So the MS. ; but most edd., following the Brussels transcript, read
dominum — " Lord."

4 Ut is omitted in the MS., first four edd., and Hild.

5 So LB., reading p-uncta for the MS. c-uncta.

6 So the MS., Hild., and Oehler, reading imman-ior ; LB., from the
margin of Ursinus, major — "greater;" the rest, inaiiior — "more
foolish."

122 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boon ir.

same time] to kill and condemn the erring as though they
were evil ? 1

55. But when, overcome, we agree that there are these
things,2 and expressly allow that all human affairs are full of
them, they will next ask, Why, then, the Almighty God does
not take away these evils, but suffers them to exist and to
go on without ceasing through all the ages ? 3 If we have
learned of God the Supreme Ruler, and have resolved not to
wander in a maze of impious and mad conjectures, we must
answer that we do not know these things, and have never
sought and striven to know things which could be grasped
by no powers [which we have], and that we, even thinking
it4 preferable, rather remain in ignorance and want of know-
ledge than say that without God nothing is made, so that it
should be understood that by his will5 he is at once both
the source of evil6 and the occasion of countless miseries.
Whence then, you will say, are all these evils ? From the
elements, say the wise, and from their dissimilarity ; but how
it is possible that things which have not feeling and judgment
should be held to be wicked or criminal ; or that he should

1 The difficulty felt by Arnobius as to the origin of evil perplexed
others also ; and, as Elmenhorst has observed, some of the fathers
attempted to get rid of it by a distinction between the evil of guilt and
of punishment, — God being author of the latter, the devil of the former
(Tertullian, adv. Marcionem, ii. 14). It would have been simpler and
truer to have distinguished deeds, which can be done only if God will,
from wickedness, which is in the sinful purpose of man's heart.

2 i.e. ills.

8 Lit., " with all the ages, in steady continuance."

4 The MS., followed by Oehler alone, reads ducetis — " and you will
think ;" while all the other edd. read, as above, ducentes.

5 Here, too, there has been much unnecessary labour. These words —
per voluntatem — as they immediately follow sine deo dicere nihil Jleri —
" to say that without God nothing is made" — were connected with the
preceding clause. To get rid of the nonsense thus created, LB. emended
del . . . voluntate — "without God's will ;" while Heraldus regards them
as an explanation of sine deo, and therefore interprets the sentence much
as LB. Orelli gets rid of the difficulty by calling them a gloss, and
bracketing them. They are, however, perfectly in place, as will be seen
above.

6 PL

BOOK ii.] ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 123

not rather be wicked and criminal, who, to bring about some
result, took what was afterwards to become very bad and
hurtful,1 — is for them to consider, who make the assertion.
What, then, do we say? whence? There is no necessity
that we should answer, for whether we are able to say
[whence evil springs], or our power fails us, and we are
unable, in either case it is a small matter in our opinion ;
nor do we hold it of much importance either to know or to
be ignorant of it, being content to have laid down but one
thing, — that nothing proceeds from God Supreme which is
hurtful and pernicious. This we are assured of, this we
know, on this one truth of knowledge and science we take
our stand, — that nothing is made by him except that which
is for the well-being of all, which is agreeable, which is very
full of love and joy and gladness, which has unbounded and
imperishable pleasures, which every one may ask in all his
prayers to befall him, and think that otherwise2 life is per-
nicious and fatal.

56. As for all the other things which are usually dwelt
upon in inquiries and discussions — from what parents they
have sprung, or by whom they are produced — we neither
strive to know,3 nor care to inquire or examine : we leave all
things to their own causes, and do not consider that they
have been connected and associated with that which we desire
should befall us.4 For what is there which men of ability do

1 It would not be easy to understand why Orelli omitted these words,
if we did not know that they had been accidentally omitted by Ober-
thiir also.

2 Lit., " that apart from these it is pernicious."

8 It must be observed that this sentence is very closely connected with
the last words of the preceding chapter, or the meaning may be ob-
scured. The connection may be shown thus : This one thing — that God
is author of no evil — we are assured of ; but as for all other questions,
we neither know, nor care to know, about them,

4 This seems the most natural arrangement ; but the edd. punctuate
thus : " have been connected and associated with us for that which we
desire." The last part of the sentence is decidedly obscure ; but the
meaning may perhaps be, that the circumstances of man's life which
absorb so much attention and cause such strife, have no bearing, after
all, upon his salvation.

124 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

not dare to overthrow, to destroy,1 from love of contradiction,
although that which they attempt to invalidate is unobjection-
able2 and manifest, and evidently bears the stamp of truth?
Or what, again, can they not maintain with plausible argu-
ments, although it may be very manifestly untrue, although
it may be a plain and evident falsehood ? For when a man
has persuaded himself that there is or is not something, he
likes to affirm what he thinks, and to show greater subtlety
than others, especially if the subject discussed is out of the
ordinary track, and by nature abstruse and obscure.3 Some
of the wise think that the world was not created, and will
never perish ;* some that it is immortal, although they say
that it was created and made ;5 while a third party have
chosen to say that it both was created and made, and will
perish as other things must.6 And while of these three
opinions one only must be true, they nevertheless all find
arguments by which at once to uphold their own doctrines,
and undermine and overthrow the dogmas of others. Some
teach and declare that this same [world] is composed of four
elements, others of two,7 a third party of one ; some say that

1 So the MS., reading labefactare dissoluere ; the latter word, however,
being marked as spurious.

2 Lit., "pure."

3 Lit., " hidden and enwrapt in darkness of nature," abdita et caligine
involuta naturse, — the reading of all edd. except Hild. and Oehler, who
follow the MS. abditK cal. — " enwrapt in darkness of hidden nature."

4 This has been supposed to refer to Heraclitus, as quoted by Clem.
Alex. Stromafa, v. p. 599 B., where his words are, "Neither God nor
man made the world ; but there was always, and is, and will be, an
undying flame laying hold of its limits, and destroying them ;" on which
cf. p. 73, n. 1. Here, of course, fire does not mean that perceived by
the senses, but a subtle, all-penetrating energy.

5 Cf. ch. 52, n. 2, p. 120.

6 Lit., u by ordinary necessity." The Stoics (Diog. Laert. vii. 134)
said that the world was made by God working on uncreated matter, and
that it was perishable (§ 141), because made through that of which
perception could take cognizance. Cf. ch. 31, n. 7, p. 98.

7 Orelli thinks that there is here a confusion of the parts of the world
with its elements, because he can nowhere find that any philosopher
has fixed the number of the elements either above or below four. The
Stoics, however (Diog. Laert. vii. 134), said " that the elements (dp%x$)

BOOK ii.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 125

[it is composed of] none of these, and that atoms are that
from which it is formed,1 and its primary origin. And since
of these opinions only one is true, but2 not one of them cer-
tain, here too, in like manner, arguments present themselves
to all with which they may both establish the truth of what
they say, and show that there are some things false 8 in the
others' opinions. So, too, some utterly deny the existence of
the gods ; others say that they are lost in doubt as to whether
they exist anywhere ; others, however, [say] that they do
exist, but do not trouble themselves about human things ;
nay, others maintain that they both take part in the affairs
of men, and guide the course of earthly events.4

57. While, then, this is the case, and it cannot but be that
only one of all these opinions is true, they all nevertheless
make use of arguments in striving with each other, — and not
one of them is without something plausible to say, whether
in affirming his own views, or objecting to the opinions of
others. In exactly the same way is the condition of souls
discussed. For this one thinks that they both are immortal,
and survive the end of our earthly life ; that one believes
that they do not survive, but perish with the bodies them-
selves : the opinion of another, however, is that they suffer
nothing immediately, but that, after the [form of] man has
been laid aside, they are allowed to live a little longer,5 [and]
then come under the power of death. And while all these
opinions cannot be alike true, yet all [who hold them] so
support their case by strong and very weighty arguments,

of the world are two — the active and passive ;" while, of course, the
cosmic theories of the early philosophers affirm that the world sprang
from one, and it seems clear enough that Arnobius here uses the word
element in this sense.

1 Lit., " its material."

2 A conjecture of Mearsios adopted by Oehler, merely dropping «
from out — " or," which is read in the sis. and edd.

3 Lit., " refute falsities placed."

4 Cf. Cicero, de Nat. Dear. i. 1, 12, 19, 23, etc.

5 Lit., "something is given to them to life." So the Stoics taught,
although Chrysippus (cf. n. 7, ch. 31, p. 98) held that only the souls of
the wiso remained at all after death

126 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

that you cannot find out anything which seems false to you,
although on every side you see that things are being said
altogether at variance with each other, and inconsistent from
their opposition to each other;1 which assuredly would not
happen, if man's curiosity could reach any certainty, or if
that which seemed [to one] to have been really discovered,
was attested by the approval of all the others. It is there-
fore wholly 2 vain, a useless task, to bring forward something
as though you knew it, or to wish to assert that you know
that which, although it should be true, you see can be refuted ;
or to receive that as true which it may be is not, and is
brought forward as if by men raving. And it is rightly so,
for we do not weigh and guess at 3 divine things by divine,
but by human methods ; and just as we think that anything
should have been made, so we assert that it must be.

58. What, then, are we alone ignorant ? do we alone not
know who is the creator, who the former of souls, what cause
fashioned man, whence ills have broken forth, or why the
Supreme Ruler allows them both to exist and be perpetrated,
and does not drive them from the world ? have you, indeed,
ascertained and learned any of these things with certainty ?
If you chose to lay aside audacious4 conjectures, can you
unfold and disclose whether this world in which we dwell6
was created or founded at some time ? if it was founded and
made, by what kind of work, pray, or for what purpose?
Can you bring forward and disclose the reason why it does
not remain fixed and immoveable, but is ever being carried
round in a circular motion ? whether it revolves of its own
will and choice, or is turned by the influence of some power ?

1 The MS., first four edd., and Oehler read et rerun contrarietatibus dis-
sonare — " and that they disagree from the oppositions of things." Hild.
reads dissonora, a word not met with elsewhere, while the other edd.
merely drop the last two letters, -re, as above ; a reading suggested in
the margin of Ursinus.

2 Lit., " a most vain thing," etc.

3 So the MS., LB., Elmenh., Hild., and Oehler, reading conjectamus, the
other edd. reading commetamur or -imur — " measure," except Gelenius
and Canterus, who read commentamur — "muse upon."

4 Lit., " audacity of." 6 Lit., " world which holds us."

BOOK ii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 127

what the place, too, and space is in which it is set and re-
volves, boundless, bounded, hollow, or1 solid? whether it is
supported by an axis resting on sockets at its extremities,
or rather itself sustains by its own power, and by the spirit
within it upholds itself? Can you, if asked, make it clear,
and show most skilfully,2 what opens out the snow into
feathery flakes'? what was the reason and cause that day did
not, in dawning, arise in the west, and veil its light in the
east? how the sun, too, by one and the same influence,3 pro-
duces results so different, nay, even so opposite ? what the
moon is, what the stars? why, on the one hand, it does not
remain of the same shape, or why it was right and necessary
that these particles of fire should be set all over the world ?
why some4 of them are small, others larger and greater,
— these have a dim light, those a more vivid and shining
brightness ?

59. If that which it has pleased us to know is within
reach, and if such knowledge is open to all, declare to us,5 and
say how and by what means showers of rain are produced,
so that water is held suspended in the regions above and in
mid-air, although by nature it is apt to glide away, and so
ready to flow and run downwards. Explain, I say, and tell
what it is which sends the hail whirling [through the air],
which makes the rain fall drop by drop, which has spread
out rain and feathery flakes of snow and sheets of light-
ning;6 whence the wind rises, and what it is; why the changes
of the seasons were established, when it might have been
ordained that there should be only one, and one kind of cli-
mate, so that there should be nothing wanting to the world's

1 The first five edd. insert the mark of interrogation after "hollow :"
" Whether does a solid axis," etc.

2 So the edd. except. Hild., who retains the MS. reading in-scienlissime
— " most unskilfully " (the others omitting in-), and Oehler, who
changes e into i — " and being most witless show," etc.

3 Lit., " touch."

4 So the later edd., reading from the margin of Ursinus figi f cur alia,
for the MS. figuralia, except LB., which reads ^zgwrcm — "be formed."

5 So the us. ; but all edd. except Hild. and Oehler omit nobis.
• So the MS., reading folgora dilatarit, followed by LB.

128 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK ir.

completeness. What is the cause, what the reason, that the
waters of the sea are salt ;l or that, of those ou land, some are
sweet, others bitter or cold? From what kind of material
have the inner parts of men's bodies been formed and built
up into firmness 1 From what have their bones been made
solid ? what made the intestines and veins shaped like pipes,
and easily passed through ? Why, when it would be better
to give us light by several eyes, to [guard against] the risk of
blindness, are we restricted to two ? For what purpose have
so infinite and innumerable kinds of monsters and serpents
been either formed or brought forth ? what purpose do owls
serve in the world, — falcons, hawks ? what other birds 2 and
winged creatures ? what the [different] kinds of ants and
worms springing up to be a bane and pest in various ways ?
what fleas, obtrusive flies, spiders, shrew, and other mice,
leeches, water-spinners ? what thorns, briers, wild-oats, tares ?
what the seeds of herbs or shrubs, either sweet to the nostrils,
or disagreeable in smell ? Nay more, if you think that any-
thing can be known or comprehended, say what wheat is, —
spelt, barley, millet, the chick-pea, bean, lentil, melon, cumin,
scallion, leek, onion "? For [even] if they are useful to you,
and are ranked among the different- kinds of food, it is not a
light or easy thing to know what each is, — why they have been
formed with such shapes ; [whether] there was any necessity
that they should not have had other tastes, smells, and colours
than those which each has, or whether they could have taken
others also ; further, what these very things are, — taste, I
mean,3 and the rest ; [and] from what relations they derive
their differences of quality. From the elements, you say,
and from the first beginnings of things. Are the elements,
then, bitter or sweet I have they any odour or4 stench, that

1 Salsa, corrected from the MS. sola.

* Alites et volucres ; i.e., according to Orelli, the birds from whose
flight auguries were drawn, as opposed to the others.

3 So Herald us, whose punctuation also is here followed, omitting id
est sapor — "that is, taste," which Meursius and LB., followed by Orelli,
amend, ut est — " as taste is" [in each thing].

4 Vel is here inserted in all edd., most of which read, as above, oloris,

BOOK ii.] ARNOBWS ADVERSUS GENTES. 12&

we should believe that, from their uniting, qualities were
implanted in their products by which sweetness is produced,
or something prepared offensive to the senses ?

60. Seeing, then, that the origin, the cause, the reason of
so many and so important things, escapes you yourselves also,
and that you can neither say nor explain what has been
made, nor why and wherefore it should not have been [other-
wise], do you assail and attack our timidity, who confess that
we do not know that which cannot be known, and who do
not care to seek out and inquire into those things which it is
quite clear cannot be understood, although human conjecture
should extend and spread itself through a thousand hearts V
And therefore Christ the divine, — although you are unwill-
ing to allow it, — Clirist the divine, I repeat (for this must be
said often, that the ears of unbelievers mny burst and be
rent asunder), speaking in the form of man by command of
the Supreme God, because he knew that men are naturally1
blind, and cannot grasp the truth at all, or regard as sure
and certain what they might have persuaded themselves as to
things set before their eyes, and do not hesitate, for the sake
of their2 conjectures, to raise and bring up questions that
cause much strife, — bade us abandon and disregard all these
things of which you speak, and not waste our thoughts upon
things which have been removed far from our knowledge,
but, as much as possible, seek the Lord of the universe with
the whole mind and spirit ; be raised above these subjects,
and give over to him our hearts, as yet hesitating whither
to turn;3 be ever mindful of him; and although no imagi-
nation can set him forth as he is,4 yet form some faint con-

which is found in the MS., in later writing, for the original, color is —
"colour," retained by Ursinus, LB., and Oehler.

1 Lit., " that the nature of man is."

2 So the MS., according to Crusius, reading nee pro suis; while,
according to Hild., the reading is prorsus — " and are utterly without
hesitation," adopted in the edd. with the substitution of et for nee —
" and that they altogether hesitate," which, besides departing from the
MS., runs counter to the sense.

3 Lit., " transfer to him the undecided conversions of the breast."

4 Lit., " he can be formed by no imagination."

AKNOB. I

130 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK IL

ception of him. For [Christ said] that, of all who are com-
prehended in the vague notion of what is sacred and divine,1
he alone is beyond the reach of doubt, alone true, and one
about whom only a raving and reckless madman can be in
doubt ; to know whom is enough, although you have learned
nothing besides ; and if by knowledge you have indeed been
related to2 God, the head of the world, you have gained the
true and most important knowledge.

61. What business of yours is it, he3 says, to examine, to
inquire who made man; what is the origin of souls; who
devised the causes of ills ; whether the sun is larger than the
earth, or measures only a foot in breadth ;4 whether the moon
shines with borrowed light, or from her own brightness, —
things which there is neither profit in knowing, nor loss in
not knowing ? Leave these things to God, and allow him
to know what is, wherefore, or whence ; whether it must
have been or not; whether something always existed,5 or
whether it was produced at the first ; whether it should be
annihilated or preserved, consumed, destroyed, or restored
in fresh vigour. Your reason is not permitted to involve
you in such questions, and to be busied to no purpose about
things so much out of reach. Your- interests are in jeopardy,
— the salvation, I mean,6 of your souls ; and unless you give
yourselves to seek to know the Supreme God, a cruel death
awaits you when freed from the bonds of body, not bringing
sudden annihilation, but destroying by the bitterness of its
grievous and long-protracted punishment.

62. And be not deceived or deluded with vain hopes by
that which is said by some ignorant and most presumptuous

1 Lit., "which the obscurity of sacred divinity eon tains;" which Orelli
interprets, " the most exalted being holds concealed from mortals."

2 Lit., " and being fixed on."

3 i.e. Christ.

4 As Heraclitus is reported to have said.

6 The MS., first five edd., and Oehler read snpernatum, for which the
other edd. read, as above, semper natum, from the margin of Ursinus.
The soul is referred to.

6 So the later edd., following Elmenhorst, who emended dico for the
MS. dici, omitted by the first four edd.

BOOK n. J A RNOBIUS AD VERS US GENTES. 1 3 1

pretenders,1 that they are born of God, and are not subject
to the decrees of fate ; that his palace lies open to them if
they lead a life of temperance, and that after death as men,
they are restored without hindrance, as if to their father's
abode ; nor [by that] which the Magi 2 assert, that they have
intercessory prayers, won over by which some powers make
the way easy to those who are striving to mount to heaven ;
nor [by that] which Etruria holds out in the Acheron tic
books,3 that souls become divine, and are freed from the law4
of death, if the blood of certain animals is offered to certain
deities. These are empty delusions, and excite vain desires.
None but the Almighty God can preserve souls ; nor is there
any one besides who can give them length of days, and grant
to them also a spirit which shall never die,5 except he who
alone is immortal and everlasting, and restricted by no limit
of time. For since all the gods, whether those who are real,
or those who are merely said to be from hearsay and con-
jecture, are immortal and everlasting by his good-will and
free gift, how can it be that others6 are able to give that
which they themselves have,7 while they have it as the gift
of another, bestowed by a greater power? Let Etruria
sacrifice what victims it may, let the wise deny themselves
all the pleasures of life,8 let the Magi soften and soothe all
[lesser] powers, [yet,] unless souls have received from the
Lord of all things that which reason demands, and [does so]
by [his] command, it9 will hereafter deeply repent having

1 So most edd., reading sciolis, from the emendation of Gelenius ; but
the MS., first five edd., Hild., and Oehler read scJiolis — " by some schools,
and [these] arrogating very much to themselves."

2 Cf. ch. xiii. p. 79 ; Plato, Rep. ii. st. p. 364, where Glaucon speaks
of certain fortune-telling vagrant seers, who persuade the rich that
they have power with the gods, by means of charms and sacrifices, to
cleanse from guilt ; and also Origen, contra Cels. i. 69, where the Magi
are spoken of as being on familiar terms with evil powers, and thus
able to accomplish whatever is within these spirits' power.

3 Mentioned by Servius (on JEn. viii. 399) as composed by Tages
(ch. Ixix.), and seemingly containing directions as to expiatory sacrifices.

4 PI. 6 Lit., " a spirit of perpetuity."
6 i.e. than the Supreme God. 7 Lit., " are."

8 Lit., " all human things." 9 i.e. reason.

132 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

made itself a laughing-stock,1 when it begins to feel the
approach2 of death.

63. But if, my opponents say, Christ was sent by God for
this end, that he might deliver unhappy souls from ruin and
destruction, of what crime were former ages guilty which
were cut off in their mortal state before he came ? Can you,
then, know what has become of these souls3 of men who lived
long ago?4 whether they, too, have [not] been aided, pro-
vided, and cared for in some way? Can you, I say, know
that which could have been learned through Christ's teaching;
whether the ages are unlimited in number or not since the
human race began to be on the earth ; when souls were first
bound to bodies; who contrived that binding,5 nay, rather,
who formed man himself; whither the souls of men who
lived before us have gone ; in what parts or regions of the
world they were ; whether they were corruptible or not ;
whether they could have encountered the danger of death, if
Christ had not come forward as their preserver at their time
of need ? Lay aside these cares, and abandon questions to
which you can find no answer.6 The Lord's compassion
has been shown to them, too, and the divine kindness7 has
been extended to8 all alike ; they have been preserved, have
been delivered, and have laid aside the lot and condition of
mortality. Of what kind, [my opponents ask,] what, when t
If you were free from presumption, arrogance, and conceit,
you might have learned long ago from this teacher.

64. But, [my opponents ask,] if Christ came as the Saviour

1 The MS. reads fuisse me risui, which has no meaning ; corrected, fuisse
irrisui in most edd., and derisui by Meursius, Hild., and Oehler, — the
sense being in either case as above.

2 Lit., " when it begins to approach to the feeling," cum ad sensum ;
so read by Gelenius for the unintelligible MS. cum absens cum.

3 So the edd., reading quid sit cum eis animis actum for the MS. cum
ejtis nimis.

4 Lit., " of ancient and very old men."

5 So the MS., LB., Hild., and Oehler, reading vinctionis ; the other
edd. junctionis — " union."

6 Lit., " unknown questions." 7 PL,
8 Lit., " has run over."

BOOK IL] ARNOB1US ADVERSUS GENTES. 133

of men, as1 you say, why2 does he not, with uniform bene-
volence, free all without exception? [I reply,] does not he
free all alike who invites all alike? or does he thrust back
or repel any one from the kindness of the Supreme who
gives to all alike the power of coining to him, — to men of
high rank, to the meanest slaves, to women, to boys? To
all, he says, the fountain of life is open,3 and no one is
hindered or kept back from drinking.4 If you are so fas-
tidious as to spurn the kindly5 offered gift, nay, more, if
your wisdom is so great that you term those things which
are offered by Christ ridiculous and absurd, why should he
keep on inviting6 [you], while his only duty is to make the
enjoyment of his bounty depend upon your own free choice?7
God, Plato says, does not cause any one to choose his lot in
life;8 nor can another's choice be rightly attributed to any
one, since freedom of choice was put in his power who made
it. Must you be even implored to deign to accept the gift
of salvation from God ; and must God's gracious rnercy be
poured into your bosom while you reject it with disdain, and

1 So the sis. and Oehler, reading ut, which is omitted in all other edd. ;
in this case, the words in brackets are unnecessary.

" So Orelli, reading cur (quur in most edd.) for the MS. quos. Instead
of non — "not," which follows, the MS., according to Oehler, reads nos,
and he therefore changes quos into quseso — " I ask, does he free all of us
altogether?"

3 There is clearly no reference here to a particular passage of Scrip-
ture, but to the general tone of Christ's teaching : " Him that cometh
unto me, I will in nowise cast out." Orelli, however, with his usual
infelicity, wishes to see a direct reference, either to Christ's words to
the woman of Samaria (John iv. 13-15), or, which is rather extra-
ordinary, to John vi. 35-37: "I am the bread of life," etc. Cf.
n. 6, p. 135.

4 Lit., "the right of drinking." 5 Lit, " the kindness of."

6 Lit., " what waits he for, inviting,'' quid invitans expectat ; the read-
ing of the MS., both Roman edd., and Oehler. Gelenius, followed by
Canterus and Elmenhorst, changed the last word into peccat — " in what
does he sin," adopted by the other edd., with the addition of in te —
" against you."

7 Lit., "exposes under decision of your own right."

8 Cf. Plato, Rep. ii. st. p. 379 : " of a few things God would be the
cause, but of many he would not ; " and x. st. p. 617 fin.

134 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

flee very far from it ? Do you choose to take what is offered,
and turn it to your own advantage ? You will [in that case]
have consulted your own interests. Do you reject with
disdain, lightly esteem, and despise it? You will [in this
case] have robbed yourself of the benefit of the gift.1 God
compels no one, terrifies no one with overpowering fear.
For our salvation is not necessary to him, so that he would
gain anything or suffer any loss, if he either made us
divine,2 or allowed us to be annihilated and destroyed by
corruption.

65. Nay, [my opponent] says, if God is powerful, merciful,
willing to save us, let him change our dispositions, and compel
us to trust in his promises. This, then, is violence, not kind-
ness nor the bounty of the Supreme God, but a childish and
vain 3 strife in seeking to get the mastery. For what is so
unjust as to force men who are reluctant and unwilling, to
reverse their inclinations ; to impress forcibly on their minds
what they are unwilling [to receive] and shrink from ; to
injure before benefiting, and to bring to another way of
thinking and feeling, by taking away the former? You who
wish yourself to be changed,4 and to suffer violence, that you
may do and may be compelled to take to yourself that which
you do not wish, why do you refuse of your own accord to
select that which you wish to do, when changed and trans-
formed ? I am unwilling, he says, and have no wish. What,
then, do you blame God as though he failed you? do you
wish [him] to bring you help,5 whose gifts and bounties you

1 So LB., Orelli, Oehler, adopting the emendation of Ursinus, tu te
muneris commoditate privaveris, for the unintelligible reading of the sis.,
luti m. c. probaveris.

2 i.e. immortal, deos, so corrected by Gelenius for the MS. Jews—" if
either God made us."

8 So most edd., reading inanis for the MS. animi; retained, though not
very intelligible, in LB., while Hild. reads anilis — "foolish."

* So the MS. now reads verti; but this word, according to Pithoeus, is
in a later handwriting, and some letters have been erased.

5 So the edd., reading tibi desit ? opem desideras tibi, except Hild. and
Oehler, who retain the MS. reading, t. d. o. desideranli — " as though be
failed you desiring [him] to bring help."

BOOK ii.] ABNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 135

not only reject and shun, but term empty1 words, and
assail with jocose witticisms? Unless, then, [my opponent
says,] I shall be a Christian, I cannot hope for salvation.
It is just as you yourself say. For, to bring salvation and
impart to souls what should be bestowed and must be added,
[Christ] alone has had given into his charge and entrusted 2
to him by God the Father, the remote and more secret
causes being so disposed. For, as with you, certain gods have
fixed offices, privileges, powers, and you do not ask from any
of them what is not in his power and permitted to him, so it
is the right of3 Christ alone to give salvation to souls, and
assign them everlasting life. For if you believe that father
Bacchus can give a good vintage, [but] cannot give relief
from sickness ; if [you believe] that Ceres [can give] good
crops, ^Esculapius health, Neptune one thing, Juno 4 another,
that Fortune, Mercury, Vulcan, are each the giver of a fixed
and particular thing, — this, too, you must needs receive from
us,5 that souls can receive from no one life and salvation,
except from him to whom the Supreme Ruler gave this
charge and duty. The Almighty Master of the world has
determined that this should be the way of salvation, — this the
door, so to say, of life ; by him 6 alone is there access to the
light : nor may men either creep in or enter elsewhere, all
other [ways] being shut up and secured by an impenetrable
barrier.

66. So, then, even if you are pure, and have been cleansed

1 So Ursinus, reading in ania cognomines for the MS. in alia, which
Orelli would interpret, " call the reverse of the truth."

2 Lit., " For the parts of bringing ... has enjoined and given over,"
partes . . . injunction habet et traditum, where it will be important to
notice that Arnobius, writing rapidly, had carried with him only the
general idea, and forgotten the mode in which this was expressed.

3 Pont/Jicium.

* Here, too, according to Pithceus, there are signs of erasure.

* i.e. admit.

6 This passage at once suggests John x. 9 and xiv. 6, and it is there-
fore the more necessary to notice the way in which Arnobius speaks
(" so to say "), which is certainly not the tone of one quoting a passage
with which he is well acquainted.

136 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

from every stain of vice, have won over and charmed l those
powers not to shut the ways against you and bar your pas-
sage when returning to heaven, by no efforts will you be
able to reach the prize of immortality, unless by Christ's gift
you have perceived what constitutes this very immortality,
and have been allowed to enter on the true life. For as to
that with which you have been in the habit of taunting us,
that our religion is new,2 and arose a few days ago, almost,
and that you could not abandon the ancient faith which you
had inherited from your fathers, and pass over to barbarous
and foreign rites, this is urged wholly without reason. For
what if in this way we chose to blame the preceding, even
the most ancient ages, because when they discovered how to
raise crops,3 they despised acorns, and rejected with scorn
the wild strawberry ; because they ceased to be covered with
the bark of trees and clad in the hides of wild beasts, after
that garments of cloth were devised, more useful and con-
venient in wearing ; or because, when houses were built, and
more comfortable dwellings erected, they did not cling to
their ancient huts, and did not prefer to remain under rocks
and caves like the beasts of the field ? It is a disposition
possessed by all, and impressed on us almost from our cradles
even, to prefer good things to bad, useful to useless things,
and to pursue and seek that with more pleasure which has
been generally regarded4 as more [than usually] precious,
and to set on that our hopes for prosperity and favourable
circumstances.

67. Therefore, when you urge against us that we turn
away from the religion5 of past [ages], it is fitting that you
should examine why it is done, not what is done, and not set
before you what we have left, but observe especially what we

1 Lit., " bent." 2 Cf. i. 13 and 58.

8 Lit., " crops being invented."

4 So the later edd., reading constiterit from the margin of ITrsinus; but
in the MS. and first four edd. the reading is constituent — "has estab-
lished," for which there is no subject.

6 So the later edd., reading aversionem ex (LB., and preceding edd. a)
religione for the MS. et religionem — " against us the hatred and religion
of past ages."

BOOK ii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 137

have followed. For if it is a fault or crime to change an
opinion, and pass from ancient customs to new conditions
and desires, this accusation holds against you too, who have
so often changed your habits and mode of life, who have
gone over to other customs and ceremonies, so that you are
condemned by1 past ages [as well as we]. Do you indeed
have the people distributed into five 2 classes, as your ances-
tors once had ? Do you ever elect magistrates by vote of
the people ? Do you know what military, urban, and com-
mon 3 comitia are ? Do you watch the sky, or put an end to
public business because evil omens are announced ? When
you are preparing for war,4 do you hang out, a flag from
the citadel, or practise the forms of the Fetiales, solemnly5
demanding the return of what has been carried off? or,
when encountering the dangers of war, do you begin to hope
also, because of favourable omens from the points of the
spears ? 6 In entering on office, do you still observe the laws
fixing the proper times? with regard to gifts and presents [to
advocates, do you observe] the Cincian and the sumptuary
laws in restricting your expenses ? Do you maintain fires,
ever burning, in gloomy sanctuaries ? 7 Do you consecrate
tables by putting on them salt-cellars and images of the gods?
When you marry, do you spread the couch with a toga, and

1 Lit., " with the condemnation of."

2 This shows that the division of the people into classes was obsolete
in the time of Arnobius.

3 Turnebus has explained this as merely another way of saying the
comitia centuriata, curiata, and tributa.

4 So the edd., reading cum paratis bella (Oehler reads reparantes) for
the MS. reparatis.

5 i.e. per clarigationem, the solemn declaration of war, if restitution
was not made within thirty-three days.

6 This seems the most natural way to deal with the clause et ex acit-
minibus auspicatis, looking on the last word as an adjective, not a verb,
as most edd. seem to hold it. There is great diversity of opinion as to
what this omen was.

7 The MS. reads in penetralibus et coliginis. LB., followed by Orelli,
merely omits et, as above, while the first five edd. read in pen. Vestse
ignis — " do you maintain the hearths of Vesta's fire." Many other read-
ings and many explanations of the passage are also proposed.

138 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

invoke the genii of husbands ? do you arrange the hair of
brides with the hasta cselibaris? do you bear the maidens'
garments to the temple of Fortuna Virginalis ? Do your
matrons work in the halls of your houses, showing their
industry openly ? do they refrain from drinking wine ? are
their friends and relations allowed to kiss them, in order that
they may show that they are sober and temperate ?

68. On the Alban hill, it was not allowed in ancient times
to sacrifice any but snow-white bulls : have you not changed
that custom and religious observance, and [has it not been]
enacted by decree of the senate, that reddish ones may be
offered ? While during the reigns of Romulus and Pom-
pilius the inner parts, having been quite thoroughly cooked
and softened, were burnt up [in sacrificing] to the gods, did
you not begin, under king Tullius,1 to hold them out half-raw
and slightly warm, paying no regard to the former usage ?
While before the arrival of Hercules in Italy supplication
was made to father Dis and Saturn with the heads of men
by Apollo's advice ; have you not, in like manner, changed
this custom too, by means of cunning deceit and ambiguous
names?2 Since, then, you yourselves also have followed at
one time these customs, at another different laws, and have
repudiated and rejected many things on either perceiving
your mistakes or seeing something better, what have we done
contrary to common sense and the discretion all men have, if
we have chosen what is greater and more certain, and have
not suffered ourselves to be held back by unreasoning respect
for impostures ?

69. But our name is new, [we are told,] and the religion
which we follow arose but a few days ago. Granting for the
present that what you urge against us is not untrue, what is
there, [I would ask,] among the affairs of men that is either
done by bodily exertion and manual labour, or attained by
the mind's learning and knowledge, which did not begin
at some time, and pass into general use and practice since

1 i.e. Serviug Tullius. The first four edd. read Tullo, i.e. Tullus
Hostilius.
8 Ct. v. c. 1.

BOOK ii. J ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 139

then ? Medicine,1 philosophy, music, and all the other arts
by which social life has been built up and refined, — were
these born with men, and did they not rather begin to be
pursued, understood, and practised lately, nay, rather, but a
short time since? Before the Etruscan Tages saw the2
light, did any one know or trouble himself to know and learn
what meaning there was in the fall of thunderbolts, or in
the veins of the victims sacrificed ? 3 When did the motion
of the stars or the art of calculating nativities begin to be
known ? Was it not after Theutis 4 the Egyptian ; or after
Atlas, as some say, the bearer, supporter, stay, [and] prop of
the skies?

70. But why do I [speak of] these trivial things? The im-
mortal gods themselves, whose temples you now enter [with
reverence], whose deity you suppliantly adore, did they not at
certain times, as is handed down by your writings and tradi-
tions, begin to be, to be known and to be invoked by names
and titles which were given to them? For if it is true that
Jupiter with his brothers was born of Saturn and his wife,
before Ops was married and bore children Jupiter had not
existed both the Supreme and the Stygian,5 no, nor the lord
of the sea, nor Juno, nay more, no one inhabited the heavenly
seats except the two parents ; but from their union [the other
gods] were conceived and born, and breathed the breath of
life. So, then, at a certain time the god Jupiter began to
be, at a certain time to merit worship and sacrifices, at a
certain time to be set above his brothers in power.6 But,
again, if Liber, Venus, Diana, Mercury, Apollo, Hercules,
the Muses, the Tyndarian brothers,7 and Vulcan the lord of

3 The MS. reads edi inJilosopJiia ; the first four edd., Philos. ; Elmenh.
and Orelli, Etenim phil. — "For were phil. ;" LB., Ede an pltil. — "say
whether phil.," which is, however, faulty in construction, as the indi-
cative follows. Rigaltius, followed by Oehler, emended as above, Medi-
cina phil.

2 Lit., " reached the coasts of."

8 Lit., " of the intestines" — extorum.

4 In both Roman edd., Theutatem, i.e. Theutas. Cf. Plato, Phsedriis,
st. p. 274.

3 t.e. Pluto. 6 PL J Lit., " Castors," i.e. Castor and Pollux.

140 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK n.

fire, were begotten by father Jupiter, and born of a parent
sprung from Saturn, before that Memory, Alcmena, Maia,
Juno, Latona, Leda, Dione, and Semele also bore children
to Diespiter ; these [deities], too, were nowhere in the world,
nor in any part of the universe, but by Jupiter's embraces
they were begotten and born, and began to have some sense
of their own existence. So then, these, too, began to be at
a certain time, and to be summoned among the gods to the
sacred rites. This we say, in like manner, of Minerva. For
if, as you assert, she burst forth from Jupiter's head un-
generated,1 before Jupiter was begotten, and received in his
mother's womb the shape and outline of his body,2 it is quite
certain that Minerva did not exist, and was not reckoned
among things or as existing at all ; but from Jove's head
she was born, and began to have a real existence. She
therefore has an origin at the first, and began to be called a
goddess at a certain time, to be set up in temples, and to be
consecrated by the inviolable obligations of religion. Now
as this is the case, when you talk of the novelty of our reli-
gion, does your own not come into your thoughts, and do
you not take care to examine when your gods sprung up, —
what origins, what causes they have,- or from what stocks
they have burst forth and sprung? But how shameful,
how shameless it is to censure that in another which you see
that you do yourself, — to take occasion to revile and accuse
[others] for things which can be retorted upon you in turn !

71. But our rites are3 new; yours are ancient, and of
excessive antiquity, [we are told.] And what help does that
give you, or how does it damage our cause and argument ?
The belief 4 which we hold is new ; some day even it, too,
will become old : yours is old ; but when it arose, it was new
and unheard of. The credibility of a religion, however,
must riot be determined by its age, but by its divinity ; and
you should consider not when, but what you began to wor-
ship. Four hundred years ago, my opponent says, your
religion did not exist. And two thousand years ago, [I

1 i.e. sine ullius seminisjactu. 2 Lit., "forms of bodily circumscription."
8 Lit., " what we do is." * Lit., " thing."

BOOK ii.] ARNOB1US ADVERSUS GENTES. 141

reply,] your gods did not exist. By what reckoning, [you
ask,] or by what calculations, can that be inferred ? They
are not difficult, not intricate, but can be seen by any one
who will take them in hand even, as the saying is. Who
begot Jupiter and his brothers? Saturn with Ops, as you
relate, sprung from Ccelus and Hecate. Who begot Picus,
the father of Faunus and grandfather of Latinus? Saturn,
as you again hand down by your books and teachers ?
Therefore, if this is the case, Picus and Jupiter are in con-
sequence united by the bond of kinship, inasmuch as they
are sprung from one stock and race. It is clear, then, that
what we say is true. How many steps are there in coming
down1 from Jupiter and Picus to Latinus? Three, as the
line of succession shows. Will you suppose Faunus, Lati-
nus, and Picus to have each lived a hundred and twenty
years, for beyond this it is affirmed that man's life cannot
be prolonged ? The estimation is well grounded and clear.
There are, then, three hundred and sixty years after these? 2
It is just as the calculation shows. Whose father-in-law
was Latinus ? ^Eneas'. Whose father [was] he ? 3 [He
was father] of the founder of the town Alba. How many
years did kings reign in Alba ? Four hundred and twenty
almost. Of what age is the city Rome shown to be in the
annals? It reckons fifteen4 hundred years, or not much
less. So, then, from Jupiter, who is the brother of Picus
and father of the other and lesser gods, down to the present
time, there are nearly, or to add a little to the time, alto-
gether, two thousand years. Now since this cannot be con-
tradicted, not only is the religion to which you adhere shown
to have sprung up lately ; but [it is also shown] that the
gods themselves, to whom you heap up bulls and other vic-

1 Lit., " how many steps are there of race."

2 i.e. Jupiter and Picus.

8 The MS. reads genitor . . . Latinus ciijus, some letters having been
erased. The reading followed above — genitor is cujus — was suggested
to Canterus by his friend Gifanius, and is found in the margin of Ur-
sinus and Orelli.

4 Cf. above, " four hundred years ago," etc., and i. ch. 13. It is of
importance to note that Arnobius is inconsistent in these statements.

142 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boos 11.

tims at the risk of bringing on disease, are young and little
children, who should still be fed with their mothers' milk.1

72. But your religion precedes ours by many years, and
is therefore, [you say,] truer, because it has been supported
by the authority of antiquity. And of what avail is it that
it should precede [ours] as many years as you please, since
it began at a certain time I or what2 are two thousand years,
compared with so many thousands of ages ? And yet, lest
we should seem to betray [our] cause by so long neglect, say,
if it does not annoy you, does the Almighty and Supreme
God seem to you to be something new ; and do those who
adore and worship him [seem to you] to support and intro-
duce an unheard-of, unknown, and upstart religion? Is
there anything older than him ? or can anything be found
preceding him in being,3 time, name? Is not he alone
uncreated, immortal, and everlasting? Who is the head4 and
fountain of things ? is not he ? To whom does eternity owe
its name ? is it not to him ? Is it not because he is ever-
lasting, that the ages go on without end? This is beyond
doubt, and true : [the religion] which we follow is not new,
then, but we have been late in learning what we should
follow and revere, or where we should both fix our hope of
salvation, and employ the aid [given] to save us. For he
had not yet shone forth who was to point out the way to
those wandering [from it], and give the light of knowledge to
those who were lying in the deepest darkness, and dispel the
blindness of their ignorance.

73. But are we alone in this position ? 5 What ! have you
not introduced into the number of your gods the Egyptian
deities named Serapis and Isis, since the consulship of Piso
and Gabinius?6 What! did you not begin both to know

1 Lit., " be nursed with the breasts and dropt milk."

2 Lit., " of what space." 3 i.e. re.

4 So the MS., according to Crusius and Livineius, reading ac; all edd.
except Oehler read aut — " head (i.e. source) or fountain."

5 The MS. reads unintelligibly vertitur solst ; for which LB., followed
l>y the later edd, reads, as above, vertimur soli.

6 Dr. Schmitz (Smith's Diet., s. v. Isis) speaks of these consuls as head-

BOOK ii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 143

and be acquainted with, and to worship with remarkable
honours, the Phrygian mother — who, it is said, was first set
up as a goddess by Midas or Dardanus — when Hannibal,
the Carthaginian, was plundering Italy and aiming at the
empire of the world ? l Are not the sacred rites of mother
Ceres, which were adopted but a little while ago, called
Grseca because they were unknown to you, their name
bearing witness to their novelty? Is it not said2 in the
writings of the learned, that the rituals of Numa Pompilius
do not contain the name of Apollo ? Now it is clear and
manifest from this, that he, too, was unknown to you, but
that at some time afterwards he began to be known also. If
any one, therefore, should ask you why you have so lately
begun to worship those deities whom we mentioned just
now, it is certain that you will reply, either because we were
[till] lately not aware that they were gods, or because we
have now been warned by the seers, or because, in very
trying circumstances, we have been preserved by their favour
and help. But if you think that this is well said by you,
you must consider that, on our part, a similar reply has been
made. Our religion has sprung up just now ; for now he
has arrived who was sent to declare it to us, to bring [us] to
its truth ; to show what God is ; to summon us from mere
conjectures, to his worship.

74. And why, [my opponent] says, did God, the ruler
and lord [of the universe], determine that a Saviour, Christ,
should be sent to you from the heights of heaven a few
hours ago, as it is said? We ask you too, on the other
hand, what cause, what reason is there that the seasons
sometimes do not recur at their own months, but that winter,

ing the popular revolt against the decree of the senate, that the statues
of Isis and Serapis should be removed from the Capitol. The words of
Tertullian (quoting Varro as his authority) are very distinct: "The
consul Gabinius . . . gave more weight to the decision of the senate
than to the popular impulse, and forbade their altars (i.e. those of Sera-
pis, Isis, Arpocrates, and Anubis) to be set up " (ad Nationes, i. 10, cf.
Apol. 6).

1 Cf. vii. 49. 2 Lit., " contained."

144 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK ir.

summer, and autumn come too late? why, after the crops
have been dried up and the corn1 has perished, showers some-
times fall which should have dropped on them while yet
uninjured, and made provision for the wants of the time?
Nay, this we rather ask, why, if it were fitting that Hercules
should be born, JEsculapius, Mercury, Liber, and some
others, that they might be both added to the assemblies of
the gods, and might do men some service, — why they were
produced so late by Jupiter, that only later ages should know
them, while the past ages2 of those who went before knew
them not ? You will say that there was some reason. There
was then some reason here also that the Saviour of our race
came not lately, but to-day. What, then, [you ask,] is the
reason ? We do not deny that we do not know. For it is
not within the power of any one to see the mind of God, or
the way in which he has arranged his plans.3 Man, a blind
creature, and not knowing himself even, can* in no way
learn what should happen, when, or what its nature is : the
Father himself, the Governor and Lord of all, alone knows.
Nor, if I have been unable to disclose to you the causes why
something is done in this way or that, does it straightway
follow, that what has been done becomes not done, and that
a thing becomes incredible, which has been shown to be
beyond doubt by such5 virtues and6 powers.

75. You may object and rejoin, Why was the Saviour
sent forth so late? In unbounded, eternal ages, [we reply,]
nothing whatever should be spoken of as late. For where
there is no end and no beginning, nothing is too soon,7

1 PI. 2 Lit, "antiquity." 3 Lit., "things."

4 So Gelenius emended the MS., reading potens — " being able," which
he changed into potest, as above, followed by later edd.

5 Lit., " by such kinds of."

6 The MS. and first edd. read et potestatibus potestatum — "and by
powers of powers;" the other edd. merely omit potestatibus, as above,
except Oehler, who, retaining it, changes potestatum into protestata —
" being witnessed to by," etc. ; but there is no instance adduced in which
the participle of this verb is used passively.

7 These words having been omitted by Oberthiir, are omitted by
Orelli also, as in previous instances.

BOOK n.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 145

nothing too late. For time is perceived from its beginnings
and endings, which an unbroken line and endless1 succession
of ages cannot have. For what if the things themselves to
which it was necessary to bring help, required that as a
fitting time? For what if the condition of antiquity was
different from that of later times? What if it was necessary
to give help to the men of old in one way, to provide for
their descendants in another ? Do you not hear your own
writings read, telling that there were once men [who were]
demi-gods, heroes with immense and huge bodies ? Do you
not read that infants on their mothers' breasts shrieked like
Stentors,2 whose bones, when dug up in different parts of the
earth, have made the discoverers almost doubt that they were
the remains of human limbs? So, then, it may be that
Almighty God, the only God, sent forth Christ then indeed,
after that the human race, [becoming] feebler, weaker, began
to be such as we are. If that which has been done no\v
could have been done thousands of years ago, the Supreme
Ruler would have done it ; or if it had been proper, that what
has been done now should be accomplished as many thousands
after this, nothing compelled God to anticipate the necessary
lapse3 of time. His plans4 are executed in fixed ways; and
that which has been once decided on, can in no wise be
changed again.5

76. Inasmuch then, you say, as you serve the Almighty
God, and trust that He cares for your safety and salva-
tion, why does He suffer you to be exposed to such storms
of persecution, and to undergo all kinds of punishments
and tortures ? Let us, too, ask in reply, why, seeing that
you worship so great and so innumerable gods, and build
temples to them, fashion images of gold, sacrifice herds

1 The MS. and first ed. read etiam moderata continuatio ; corrected, et
immod. con. by Gelenius.

2 So the edd., reading infantes stentoreos, except Oehler, who retains
the MS. reading centenaries, which he explains as "having a hundred"
heads or hands, as the case might be, e.g. Typhon, Briareus, etc.

3 Lit., "measure." 4 Lit., "things."
5 Lit., " can be changed with no novelty."

ARNOB. 1£

146 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boos n

of animals, [and] all heap up1 boxfuls of incense on the
already loaded altars, why you live subject to so many
dangers and storms [of calamity], with which many fatal
misfortunes vex you every day ? Why, I say, do your gods
neglect to avert from you so many kinds of disease and
sickness, shipwrecks, downfalls, conflagrations, pestilences,
barrenness, loss of children, and confiscation of goods, dis-
cords, wars, enmities, captures of cities, and the slavery of
those who are robbed of their rights of free birth ? 2 But,
[my opponent says,] in such mischances we, too, are in no
wise helped by God. The cause is plain and manifest. For
no hope has been held out to us with respect to this life, nor
has any help been promised or3 aid decreed us for what
belongs to the husk of this flesh, — nay, more, we have been
taught to esteem and value lightly all the threats of fortune,
whatever they be ; and if ever any very grievous calamity
has assailed [us], to count as pleasant in [that] misfortune*
the end which must follow, and not to fear or flee from it,
that we may be the more easily released from the bonds of
the body, and escape from our darkness and5 blindness.

77. Therefore that bitterness of persecution of which you
speak is our deliverance and not persecution, and our ill-
treatment will not bring evil upon us, but will lead us to
the light of liberty. As if some senseless and stupid fellow
were to think that he never punished a man who had been
put into prison6 with severity and cruelty, unless he were to
rage against the very prison, break its stones in pieces, and

1 Lit., " provide," conficiatis, which, however, some would under-
stand " consume."

2 Lit., " slaveries, their free births being taken away."

3 Lit, " and."

4 So the MS., first five edd., Hild., and Oehler, reading adscribere in-
fortunio voluptatem, which is omitted in the other edd. as a gloss which
may have crept in from the margin.

5 Lit., " our dark."

6 The MS. and both Roman edd. read in carcerem natum inegressum ;
LB. and later edd. have received from the margin of Ursinus the reading
translated above, datum, omitting the last word altogether, which Oehler,
however, would retain as equivalent to " not to be passed from."

BOOK ii. J ARNOBIUS ADVERS US GENTES. 147

burn its roof, its wall, its doors ; and strip, overthrow, and
dash to the ground its other parts, not knowing that thus
he was giving light to him whom he seemed to be injuring,
and was taking from him the accursed darkness: in like
manner, you too, by the flames, banishments, tortures, and
monsters with which you tear in pieces and rend asunder
our bodies, do not rob us of life, but relieve us of our skins,
not knowing that, as far as you assault and seek to rage
against these our shadows and forms, so far you free us
from pressing and heavy chains, and cutting our bonds,
make us fly up to the light.

78. Wherefore, O men, refrain from obstructing what
you hope for by vain questions ; nor should you, if anything
is otherwise than you think, trust your own opinions rather
than that which should be reverenced.1 The times, full of
dangers, urge us, and fatal penalties threaten us ; let us flee
for safety to God our Saviour, without demanding the reason
of the offered gift. When that at stake is our souls' salva-
tion and our own interests, something must be done even
without reason, as Arrhianus approves of Epictetus having
said.2 We doubt, we hesitate, and suspect the credibility of
what is said ; let us commit ourselves to God, and let not
our incredulity prevail more with us than the greatness of
His name and power, lest, while we are seeking out argu-
ments for ourselves, through which that may seem false
which we do not wish and deny to be true, the last day steal
upon us, and we be found in the jaws of our enemy, death.

1 Lit., " than an august thing."

2 Orelli refers to Arrh. i. 12 ; but the doctrine there insisted on is the
necessity of submission to what is unavoidable. Oehler, in addition,
refers to Epict. xxxii. 3, where, however, it is merely attempted to
show that when anything is withheld from us, it is just as goods are
unless paid for, and that we have therefore no reason to complain.
Neither passage can be referred to here, and it seems as though Arno-
bius has made a very loose reference which cannot be specially identified.

BOOK III.

ARGUMENT.

IN the two preceding books, Arnobius endeavoured to repel the ob-
jections raised against Christianity ; but already, he says, it had found
able defenders, though strong enough in its own might to need none
(1) ; and therefore, having replied to the charge of neglecting the
worship of the gods, by asserting that in worshipping the Supreme God,
the Creator of the universe, any other gods, if there are such, receive
honour, inasmuch as they are sprung from him (2, 3), he goes on to at-
tack heathenism itself, pointing out that the other gods cannot be proved
to exist, their names and number being alike unknown (4, 5). These
gods, moreover, are spoken of as male and female, but the divine cannot
be liable to such distinctions, as Cicero showed (6) ; whom it would be
well, therefore, for the heathen to refute, instead of merely raising an
unreasoning clamour against his writings (7). The use by Christians of
a masculine term to denote the Deity, is merely a necessity of speech ;
but the heathen expressly attributed sex to their deities (8), who would
therefore, being immortal, be innumerable ; or if the gods did not beget
children, why had they sex (9) ? Arnobius then inveighs against this
opinion as degrading and dishonouring the gods (10), and says that it is
far more likely that they would afflict men to punish such insults, than
to take vengeance on Christians, who did them no dishonour (11). He
then goes on to speak of bodily form, denying that it is attributed to
the Deity by Christians (12), while the heathen boldly asserted that their
gods had human bodies, which, Arnobius shows, makes it necessary to
ascribe to some gods the basest offices (13-15). It might, however, be
said that the gods were not really supposed to have such bodies, but
were so spoken of out of respect. This, Arnobius shows, is not honour-
ing, but insulting, them as much as possible (16). If the Deity has any
mortal shape, we do not know it (17) ; he may hear, see, and speak in
his own, but not in our way (18) ; and it is unbecoming to ascribe even
our virtues to God, — we can only say that his nature cannot be de-
clared by man (19).

The offices ascribed to the gods are next derisively commented on
(20, 21) ; and as to the suggestion that the gods impart a knowledge of
the arts over which they preside, without being practically acquainted
with them, it is asked why the gods should seek this knowledge, when
they had no opportunity of turning it to account (22). It might, how-
148

BOOK in. I ARNOBIVS ADVEESUS GENTES. 149

ever, be said that it belonged to the gods to secure a prosperous issue to
human undertakings. Why, then, failure, ruin, and destruction (23)?
Because, it would be answered, of neglected rites, and sacrifices withheld.
Is, then, Arnobius asks, the favour of the gods to be purchased? is it not
theirs to give to those utterly destitute (24) ? Unxia, Cinxia, Vita, and
Potua are held up as foul parodies on Deity (25). Mars and Venus being
taken as fair examples (26, 27), the conclusion is reached, that such
gods, presiding over lust, discord, and war, cannot be believed in (28).
The inconsistent and mutually destructive opinions entertained with
regard to Janus, Saturn (29), Jupiter, Juno (30), and other gods, render
belief in them impossible (ol-34) ; while if, as some believe, the world is
a living being, the deities cannot exist which are said to be parts of it,
as the sun, moon, etc., for the whole will have life, not its members (35).
Thus the heathen plainly subvert all faith in their religion, however
zealous against Christian innovations (36). They do so still further, by
the ridiculous inconsistency of their opinions as to the origin and num-
bers of their gods, in particular of the Muses (37, 38) ; the Novensiles
(38, 39) ; the Penates (40) ; and the Lares (41).

Arnobius, having thus shown that the heathen are hi doubt and igno-
rance as to all their gods, a circumstance giving rise to confusion in
seeking to celebrate their rites (42, 43), calls upon them to decide on
their creed, and abide by it (44).

jjLL these charges, then, which might truly be
better termed abuse, have been long answered
with sufficient fulness and accuracy by men
of distinction in this respect, and worthy to
have learned the truth ; and not one point of any inquiry has
been passed over, without being determined in a thousand
ways, and on the strongest grounds. We need not, therefore,
linger further on this part of the case. For neither is the
Christian religion unable to stand though it found no advo-
cates, nor will it be therefore proved true if it found many
to agree with it, and gained weight through its adherents.1
Its own strength is sufficient for it, and it rests on the foun-
dations of its own truth, without losing its power, though
there were none to defend it, nay, though all voices assailed

1 The MS., followed by Oehler, reads neque enim res stare . . . non
pvtest, Christiana religio aut — "for neither can a thing not stand, . . .
nor will the Christian religion," etc., while LB. merely changes aut
into et — "for neither can a thing, i.e. the Christian religion, . . . nor will
it," etc. All other edd. read as above, omitting et.

150 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK in.

and opposed it, and united with common rancour to destroy
all faith l in it.

2. Let us now return to the order from which we were a
little ago compelled to diverge, that our defence may not,
through its being too long broken off, be said to have given
our detractors cause to triumph in the establishing of their
charge. For they propose these questions : If you are in
earnest about religion, why do you not serve and worship
the other gods with us, or share your sacred rites with your
fellows, and put the ceremonies of the [different] religions on
an equality ? We may say for the present : In essaying to
approach the divine, the Supreme Deity2 suffices us, — the
Deity, I say, who is supreme, the Creator and Lord of the
universe, who orders and rules all things : in him we serve
all that requires our service ; [in him] we worship all that
should be adored, — venerate3 that which demands the homage
of our reverence. For as we lay hold of the source of the
divine itself, from which the very divinity of all gods what-
ever is derived,4 we think it an idle task to approach each
personally, since we neither know who they are, nor the
names by which they are called ; and are further unable to
learn, and discover, and establish their number.

3. And as in the kingdoms of earth we are in no wise
constrained expressly to do reverence to those who form the
royal family as well as to the sovereigns, but whatever honour
belongs to them is found to be tacitly5 implied in the homage

1 According to Crusius and others, the MS. reads jinem ; but, accord-
ing to Hild., Jidem, as above.

2 Deus primus, according to Nourry, in relation to Christ ; but mani-
festly from the scope of the chapter, God as the fountain and source of
all things.

3 Lit., " propitiate with venerations."

4 So the MS., reading ducitur; for which Oberthur, followed by Orelli,
reads dicitur — " is said."

5 Lit., " whatever belongs to them feels itself to be comprehended with
a tacit rendering also of honour in," etc., tacita et se sentit honorificentia,
read by later edd. for the MS. ut se sentit — " but as whatever," retained
by Hild. and Oehler ; while the first four edd. read vi — " feels itself with
a silent force comprehended in the honour in," etc.

BOOK in.] ARNOBIUS ADVEESUS GENTES. 151

offered to the kings themselves ; in just the same way, these
gods, whoever they be, for whose existence you vouch, if
they are a royal race, and spring from the Supreme Ruler,
even though we do not expressly do them reverence, yet feel
that they are honoured in common with their Lord, and share
in the reverence shown to him. Now [it must be remem-
bered that] we have made this statement, on the hypothesis
only that it is clear and undeniable, that besides the Ruler
and Lord himself, there are still other beings,1 who, when
arranged and disposed in order, form, as it were, a kind of
plebeian mass. But do not seek to point out to us pictures
instead of gods in your temples, and the images [which you
set up], for you too know, but are unwilling and refuse to
admit, that these are formed of most worthless clay, and are
childish figures made by mechanics. And when we converse
with you on religion, we ask you to prove this, that there are
other gods [than the one Supreme Deity] in nature, power,
name, not as we see them manifested in images, but in such
a substance as it might fittingly be supposed that perfection
of so great dignity should reside.

4. But we do not purpose delaying further on this part
of the subject, lest we seem desirous to stir up most violent
strife, and engage in agitating contests.

Let there be, as you affirm, that crowd of deities, let there
be numberless families of gods ; we assent, agree, [and] do
not examine [too] closely, nor in any part of the subject
do we assail the doubtful and uncertain positions you hold.
This, however, we demand, and ask you to tell us, whence
you have discovered, or how you have learned, whether there
are these gods,2 whom you believe to be in heaven and serve,
or some others unknown by reputation and name ? For it
may be that beings exist whom you do not believe to do so ;

1 So LB. and Orelli, reading alia etiamnum capita for the MS. alienum
capita, read in the first five edd., alia non capita — "are others not
chiefs;" Hild., followed by Oehler, proposes alia deum capita — "other
gods."

2 According to Orelli's punctuation, " whether there are these gods in
heaven whom," etc.

152 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boon in.

and that those of whose existence you feel assured, are found
nowhere in the universe. For you have at no time been
borne aloft to the stars of heaven, [at no time] have seen the
face and countenance of each ; and [then] established here
the worship of the same gods, whom you remembered to be
there, as having been known and seen [by you]. But this,
too, we again would learn from you, whether they have re-
ceived these names by which you call them, or assumed
them themselves on the days of purification.1 If these are
divine and celestial names, who reported them to you ? But
if, on the other hand, these names have been applied to them
by you, how could you give names to those whom you never
saw, and whose character or circumstances you in no wise 3
knew?

5. But [let it be assumed] that there are these gods, as
you wish and believe, and are persuaded ; let them be called
also by those names by which the common people suppose
that those meaner [gods] 3 are known.4 Whence, however,
have you learned who make up the list [of gods] under these
names?5 have any ever become familiar and kno\rn [to
others] with whose names you were not acquainted ? 6 For
it cannot be easily known whether their numerous body is
settled and fixed [in number] ; or whether their multitude
cannot be summed up and limited by the numbers of any
computation. For let us suppose that you do reverence to
a thousand, or rather five thousand gods ; but in the uni-

1 So LB. and later edd., from a conj. of Meursius, reading diebus lus-
tricis for the MS. ludibriis ; read by some, and understood by others, as
ludicris, i.e. festal days.

2 The MS., followed by Hild. and Oehler, reads neque . . . in uUa cog-
natione — "in no relationship," for which the other edd. give cognitione,
as above.

3 So all edd., reading populares, except, Hild. and Oehler, who receive
the conj. of Rigaltius, populatim — "among all nations;" the MS. reading
popularem.

4 Censeri, i.e. " written in the list of gods."

5 Otherwise, " how many make up the list of this name."

6 So Orelli, receiving the emendation of Barth, incogniti nomine, for
the MS. in cognitione, -one being an abbreviation for nomine. Examples
of such deities are the Novensiles, Consentes, etc., cc, 38-41.

BOOK in.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 153

verse it may perhaps be that there are a hundred thousands ;
there may be even more than this, — nay, as we said a little
before, it may not be possible to compute the number of the
gods, or limit them by a definite number. Either, then, you
are yourselves impious who serve a few gods, but disregard
the duties which you owe to the rest ;l or if you claim that
your ignorance of the rest should be pardoned, you will pro-
cure for us also a similar pardon, if in just the same way a
we refuse to worship those of whose existence we are wholly
ignorant.

6. And yet let no one think that we are perversely deter-
mined not to submit to 3 the other deities, whoever they are !
For we [lift up] pious minds, and stretch forth our hands in
prayer,4 and do not refuse to draw near whithersoever you
may have summoned us ; if only we learn who those divine
beings are whom you press upon us, and with whom it may
be right to share the reverence which we show to the king
and prince who is over all. It is Saturn, [my opponent] says,
and Janus, Minerva, Juno, Apollo, Venus, Triptolemus, Her-
cules, JEsculapius, and all the others, to whom the reverence
of antiquity dedicated magnificent temples in almost every
city. You might, perhaps, have been able to attract us to
the worship of these deities you mention, had you not been
yourselves the first, with foul and unseemly fancies, to de-
vise such tales about them as not merely to stain their
honour, but, by the natures assigned to them, to prove that
they did not exist at all. For, in the first place, we cannot
be led to believe this, — that that immortal and supreme

1 Lit., " who, except a few gods, do not engage in the services of the
rest."

2 Orelli would explain pro parte consimili as equivalent to pro uno
vero Deo — " for the one true God."

3 Lit., "take the oaths of allegiance," or military oaths, using a very
common metaphor applied to Christians in the preceding book, c. 5.

* Lit., "suppliant hands." It has been thought that the word sup-
plices is a gloss, and that the idea originally was that of a band of sol-
diers holding out their hands as they swore to be true to their country
and leaders ; but there is no want of simplicity and congruity in the
sentence as it stands, to warrant us in rejecting the word.

154 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK nr.

nature has been divided by sexes, and that there are some
male, others female. But this point, indeed, has been long
ago fully treated of by men of ardent genius, both in Latin
and Greek ; and Tullius, the most eloquent among the
Romans, without dreading the vexatiousness of a charge of
impiety, has above all, with greater piety,1 declared — boldly,
firmly, and frankly — what he thought of such a fancy ; and
if you would proceed to receive from him opinions written
with true discernment, instead of [merely] brilliant sen-
tences, this case would have been concluded ; nor would it
require at our weak hands 2 a second pleading,3 as it is
termed.

7. But why should I say that men seek from him subtle-
ties of expression and splendour of diction, when I know
that there are many who avoid and flee from his books on
this subject, and will not hear his opinions read,4 overthrow-
ing their prejudices ; and when I hear others muttering
angrily, and saying that the senate should decree the de-
struction 5 of these writings by which the Christian religion
is maintained, and the weight of antiquity overborne ? But,
indeed, if you are convinced that anything you say regard-
ing your gods is beyond doubt, point out Cicero's error,
refute, rebut his rash and impious words,6 [and] show [that
they are so]. For when you would carry off writings, and
suppress a book given forth to the public, you are not de-
fending the gods, but dreading the evidence of the truth.

8. And yet, that no thoughtless person may raise a false

1 i.e. than the inventors of such fables had shown.

2 Lit., " from us infants," i.e. as compared with such a man as
Cicero.

3 Secundas actiones. The reference is evidently to a second speaker,
•who makes good his predecessor's defects.

4 Lit., "are unwilling to admit into their ear the reading of opinions,"
etc.

5 Both Christians and heathen, it is probable, were concerned in the
mutilation of de Nat. Deorum.

6 So Gelenius, reading dicta for the MS. dictitare. The last verb is
compmbate, read reprobate — " condemn," by all edd. except Hild. and
Oehler.

BOOK m. j AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 155

accusation against us, as though we believe God whom we
worship to be male, — for this reason, that is, that when we
speak of him we use a masculine word, — let him understand
that it is not sex which is expressed, but his name, and its
meaning according to custom, and the way in which we are
in the habit of using words.1 For the Deity is not male, but
his name is of the masculine gender : but in your ceremonies
you cannot say the same ; for in your prayers you have been
wont to say whether thou art god or goddess^ and this uncer-
tain description shows, even by their opposition, that you
attribute sex to the gods. We cannot, then, be prevailed on
to believe that the divine is embodied ; for bodies must needs
be distinguished by difference of sex, if they are male and
female. For who, however mean his capacity,3 does not
know that the sexes of different gender have been ordained
and formed by the Creator of the creatures of earth, only that,
by intercourse and union of bodies, that which is fleeting and
transient may endure being ever renewed and maintained ?4
9. What, then, shall we say ? That gods beget and are
begotten?5 and that therefore they have received organs of
generation, that they might be able to raise up offspring, and
that, as each new race springs up, a substitution, regularly
occurring,6 should make up for all which had been swept
away by the preceding age ? If, then, it is so, — that is, if the
gods above beget [other gods], and are subject to these condi-
tions of sex,7 and are immortal, and are not worn out by the
chills of age, — it follows, as a consequence, that the world8
should be full of gods, and that countless heavens could not
contain their multitude, inasmuch as they are both them-

1 Lit, " with familiarity of speech."

2 A formula used when they sought to propitiate the author of some
event which could not be traced to a particular deity ; referring also to
the cases in which there were different opinions as to the sex of a deity.

3 Lit., " even of mean understanding."

4 Lit., " by the renewing of perpetual succession."
8 Lit., " that gods are born."

6 Lit., " recurring," " arising again."

7 Lit., " make trial of themselves by these laws of sex."

" Lit., " all things," etc. , . •

156 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boou m.

selves ever begetting, and the countless multitude of their
descendants, always being increased, is augmented by means
of their offspring ; or if, as is fitting, the gods are not de-
graded by being subjected to sexual impulses,1 what cause
or reason will be pointed out for their being distinguished
by those members by which the sexes are wont to recognise
each other at the suggestion of their own desires ? For it is
not likely that they have these [members] without a purpose,
or that nature had wished in them to make sport of its own
improvidence,2 in providing them with members for which
there would be no use. For as the hands, feet, eyes, and
other members which form our body,3 have been arranged
for certain uses, each for its own end, so we may well 4 be-
lieve that these members have been provided to discharge
their office ; or it must be confessed that there is something
without a purpose in the bodies of the gods, which has been
made uselessly and in vain.

10. What say you, ye holy and pure guardians of religion f
Have the gods, then, sexes ; and are they disfigured by those
parts, the very mention of whose names by modest lips is
disgraceful? What, then, now remains, but to believe that
they, as unclean beasts, are transported with violent passions,
rush with maddened desires into mutual embraces, and at
last, with shattered and ruined bodies, are enfeebled by their
sensuality 1 And since some things are peculiar to the female
sex, we must believe that the goddesses, too, submit to these
conditions at the proper time, conceive and become pregnant
with loathing, miscarry, carry the full time, and sometimes
are prematurely delivered. O divinity, pure, holy, free from
and unstained by any dishonourable blot! The mind longs5
and burns to see, in the great halls and palaces of heaven,

1 Lit., " if the impurity of sexual union is wanting to the gods."

2 So the first five edd.

3 Lit., " the other arrangement of members."

4 Lit., " it is fitting to believe."

8 The MS., followed by Hild., reads habet et animunt — " has it a mind to,
and does it," etc. ; for which Gelenius, followed by later edd., reads, as
above, avet animus

BOOK m.j AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 157

gods and goddesses, with bodies uncovered and bare, the full-
breasted Ceres nursing laccus,1 as the muse of Lucretius
sings, the Hellespontian Priapus bearing about among the
goddesses, virgin and matron, those parts2 ever prepared for
encounter. It longs, I say, to see goddesses pregnant, god-
desses with child, and, as they daily increase in size, faltering
in their steps, through the irksomeness of the burden they
bear about with them ; others, after long delay, bringing to
birth, and seeking the midwife's aid; others, shrieking as
they are attacked by keen pangs and grievous pains, tor-
mented,3 and, under all these influences, imploring the aid of
Juno Lucina. Is it not much better to abuse, revile, and
otherwise insult the gods, than, with pious pretence, un-
worthily to entertain such monstrous beliefs about them?

11. And you dare to charge us with offending the gods,
although, on examination, it is found that the ground of
offence is most clearly in yourselves, and that it is not occa-
sioned by the insult which you think4 [we offer them].
For if the gods are, as you say, moyed by anger, and burn
with rage in their minds, why should we not suppose that
they take it amiss, even in the highest degree, that you
attribute to them sexes, as dogs and swine have been cre-
ated, and that, since this is your belief, they are so repre-
sented, and openly exposed in a disgraceful manner? This,
then, being the case, you are the cause of all troubles —
you lead the gods, you rouse them to harass the earth
with every ill, and every day to devise all kinds of fresh
misfortunes, that so they may avenge themselves, being
irritated at suffering so many wrongs and insults from you.
By your insults and affronts, I say, partly in the vile stories,
partly in the shameful beliefs which your theologians, your

1 Cererem ah laccho, either as above, or "loved by lacchus." Cf.
Lucret. iv. 1160 : At tumida et mammosa Ceres est ipsa ab laccho.

2 Sensu obscceno.

8 The first five edd. read hortari—" exhorted," for which LB., followed
by later edd., received tortari, as above, — a conjecture of Canterus.

4 So Orelli, reading r.ec in contiimelia quam opinamini stare for the MS.
et, which is retained by all other edd. ; Oehler, however, inserts alia
before quam — " and that it is found in an insult other than you think."

158 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boon in.

poets, you yourselves too, celebrate in disgraceful ceremonies,
you will find that the affairs of men have been ruined, and
that the gods have thrown away the helm, if indeed it is by
their care that the fortunes of men are guided and arranged.
For with us, indeed, they have no reason to be angry, whom
they see and perceive neither to mock, as it is said, nor
worship them, and to think,1 to believe much more worthily
than you with regard to the dignity of their name.

12. Thus far of sex. Now let us come to the appear-
ance and shapes by which you believe that the gods above
have been represented, with which, indeed, you fashion, and
set them up in their most splendid abodes, your temples.
And let no one here bring up against us Jewish fables
and those of the sect of the Sadducees,2 as though we, too,
attribute to the Deity forms3 (for this is supposed to be
taught in their writings, and asserted as if with assurance
and authority) ; for these stories either do not concern
us, and have nothing at all in common with us, or if they
are shared in [by us], as you believe, you must seek out
teachers of greater wisdom, through whom you may be able
to learn how best to overcome the dark and recondite sayings
of those writings. Our opinion on the subject is as follows :
— that the whole divine nature, since it neither came into
existence at any time, nor will ever come to an end of life, is
devoid of bodily features, and does not have anything like
the forms with which the termination of the several members
usually completes the union of parts.4 For whatever is of
this character, we think mortal and perishable; nor do we
believe that that can endure for ever which an inevitable end
shuts in, though the boundaries enclosing it be the remotest.

13. But it is not enough that you limit the gods by forms :

1 So later edd., omitting quam, which is read in the MS., both Roman
edd., Hild., and Oehler, "to think much more . . . than you believe."

2 It is evident that Arnobius here confuses the sceptical Sadducees
with their opponents the Pharisees, and the Talmudists.

3 The MS. reads tribuant et nos unintelligibly, for which LB. and Hild.
read et os — "as though they attribute form and face;" the other edd.,
as above, tribuamus et nos.

4 lit., " the joinings of the members."

BOOK in 1 A RNOB1 US AD VEES US GENTES. 159

— you even confine them to the human figure, and with even
less decency enclose them in earthly bodies. What shall we
say then ? that the gods have a head modelled with perfect
symmetry,1 bound fast by sinews to the back and breast, and
that, to allow the necessary bending of the neck, it is sup-
ported by combinations of vertebrae, and by an osseous foun-
dation ? But if we believe this to be true, it follows that they
have ears also, pierced by crooked windings ; rolling eyeballs,
overshadowed by the edges of the eyebrows ; a nose, placed
as a channel,2 through which waste fluids and a current of
air might easily pass ; teeth to masticate food, of three kinds,
and adapted to three services; hands to do their work, moving
easily by means of joints, fingers, and flexible elbows ; feet
to support their bodies, regulate their steps, and prompt the
first motions in walking. But if [the gods bear] these things
which are seen, it is fitting that they should bear those also
which the skin conceals under the framework of the ribs, and
the membranes enclosing the viscera ; windpipes, stomachs,
spleens, lungs, bladders, livers, the long-entwined intestines,
and the veins of purple blood, joined with the air-passages,3
coursing through the whole viscera.

14. Are, then, the divine bodies free from these defor-
mities ? and since they do not eat the food of men, are we to
believe that, like children, they are toothless, and, having no
internal parts, as if they were inflated bladders, are without
strength, owing to the hollowness of their swollen bodies ?
Further, if this is the case, you must see whether the gods
are all alike, or are marked by a difference in the contour of
their forms. For if each and all have one and the same
likeness of shape, there is nothing ridiculous in believing that
they err, and are deceived in recognising each other.4 But

1 Lit., " with smooth roundness."

2 Lit., "the raised gutter of the nose, easily passed by," etc.

3 The veins were supposed to be for the most part filled with blood,
mixed with a little air ; while in the arteries air was supposed to be in
excess. Cf. Cicero, de Nat. Deor. ii. 55 : " Through the veins blood is
poured forth to the whole body, and air through the arteries. ''

4 Lit., " in the apprehension of mutual knowledge."

ICO THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK in.

if, on the other hand, they are distinguished by their counte-
nances, we should, consequently, understand that these differ-
ences have been implanted for no other reason than that they
might individually be able to recognise themselves by the
peculiarities of the different marks. We should therefore
say that some have big heads, prominent brows, broad brows,
thick lips ; that others of them have long chins, moles, and
high noses; that these have dilated nostrils, those are snub-
nosed ; some chubby from a swelling of their jaws or growth
of their cheeks, dwarfed, tall, of middle size, lean, sleek, fat ;
some with crisped and curled hair, others shaven, with bald
and smooth heads. Now your workshops show and point
out that our opinions are not false, inasmuch as, when you
form and fashion gods, you represent some with long hair,
others smooth and bare, as old, as youths, as boys, swarthy,
grey-eyed, yellow, half-naked, bare ; or, that cold may not
annoy them, covered with flowing garments thrown over
them.

15. Does any man at all possessed of judgment, believe
that hairs and down grow on the bodies of the gods 1 that
among them age is distinguished? and that they go about
clad in dresses and garments of various shapes, and shield
themselves from heat and cold ? But if any one believes
that, he must receive this also as true, that [some] gods are
fullers, some barbers ; the former to cleanse the sacred gar-
ments, the latter to thin their locks when matted with a thick
growth of hair. Is not this really degrading, most impious,
and insulting, to attribute to the gods the features of a frail
and perishing animal? to furnish them with those members
which no modest person would dare to recount, and describe,
or represent in his own imagination, without shuddering at
the excessive indecency? Is this the contempt you entertain,
— this the proud wisdom with which you spurn us as ignorant,
and think that all knowledge of religion is yours? You
mock the mysteries of the Egyptians, because they ingrafted
the forms of dumb animals upon their divine causes, and
because they worship these very images with much incense,
and whatever else is used in such rites : you yourselves adore

BOOK in.] ARNOB1US ADVERSUS GENTES. 161

images of men, as though they were powerful gods, and are
not ashamed to give to these the countenance of an earthly
creature, to blame others for their mistaken folly, and to be
detected in a similarly vicious error.

16. But you will, perhaps, say that the gods have indeed
other forms, and that you have given the appearance of men
to them [merely] by way of honour, and for form's sake j1
which is much more insulting than to have fallen into any
error through ignorance. For if you confessed that you had
ascribed to the divine forms that which you had supposed
and believed, your error, originating in prejudice, would not
be so blameable. But now, when you believe one thing
and fashion another, you both dishonour those to whom you
ascribe that which you confess does not belong to them, and
show your impiety in adoring that which you fashion, not that
which you think really is, and which is in very truth. If
asses, dogs, pigs2 had any human wisdom and skill in con-
trivance, and wished to do us honour also by some kind of
worship, and to show respect by dedicating statues [to us], with
what rage would they inflame us, what a tempest of passion
would they excite, if they determined that our images should
bear and assume the fashion of their own bodies ? How
would they, I repeat, fill us with rage, and rouse our passions,
if the founder of Rome, Romulus, were to be set up with an
ass's face, the revered Pompilius with that of a dog, if under
the image of a pig were written Cato's or Marcus Cicero's
name ? So, then, do you think that your stupidity is not
laughed at by your deities, if they laugh [at all]? or, since
you believe that they may be enraged, [do you think] that
they are not roused, maddened to fury, and that they do not
wish to be revenged for so great wrongs and insults, and to
hurl on you the punishments usually dictated by chagrin,
and devised by bitter hatred 1 How much better it had been

1 The MS. and first four edd. read dolis causa — "for the sake of a
dowry ; " corrected as above, dicis causa in the later edd.

2 This argument seems to have been suggested by the saying of Xeno-
phanes, that the ox or lion, if possessed of man's power, would have repre-
sented, after the fashion of their own bodies, the gods they would worship.

AUNOB. L

162 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boos m.

to give to them the forms of elephants, panthers, or tigers,
bulls, and horses ! For what is there beautiful in man, —
what, I pray you, worthy of admiration, or comely, — unless
that which, some poet1 has maintained, he possesses in com-
mon with the ape ?

17. But, they say, if you are not satisfied with our opinion,
do you point out, tell us yourselves, what is the Deity's form.
If you wish to hear the truth, either the Deity has no form ;
or if he is embodied in one, we indeed know not what it is.
Moreover, we think it no disgrace to be ignorant of that
which we never saw ; nor are we therefore prevented from
disproving the opinions of others, because on this we have
no opinion of our own to bring forward. For as, if the
earth be said to be of glass, silver, iron, or gathered together
and made from brittle clay, we cannot hesitate to maintain
that this is untrue, although we do not know of what it is
made ; so, when the form of God is discussed, we show that
it is not what you maintain, even if we are [still] less able to
explain what it is.

18. What, then, some one will say, does the Deity not
hear ? does he not speak ? does he not see what is put before
him ? has he not sight ? He may in "his own, but not in our
way. But in so great a matter we cannot know the truth
at all, or reach it by speculations ; for these are, it is clear,
in our case, baseless, deceitful, and like vain dreams. For
if we said that he sees in the same way as ourselves, it
follows that it should be understood that he has eyelids
placed as coverings on the pupils of the eyes, that he closes
them, winks, sees by rays or images, or, as is the case in all
eyes, can see nothing at all without the presence of other
light. So we must in like manner say of hearing, and
form of speech, and utterance of words. If he hears by
means of ears, these, too, [we must say,] he has, penetrated
by winding paths, through which the sound may steal,
bearing the meaning of the discourse ; or if his words are
poured forth from a mouth, that he has lips and teeth, by

1 Ennius (Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. 35) : Simla quam similis, turpissima
be&tia, nobis.

BOOK IIL] ABNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 163

the contact and various movement of which his tongue
utters sounds distinctly, and forms his voice to words.

19. If you are willing to hear our conclusions, [then learn
that] we are so far from attributing bodily shape to the Deity,
that we fear to ascribe to so great a being even mental graces,
and the very excellences by which a few have been allowed
with difficulty to distinguish themselves. For who will say
that God is brave, firm, good, wise? who [will say] that he
has integrity, is temperate, even that he has knowledge,
understanding, forethought? that he directs towards fixed
moral ends the actions on which he determines? These
things are good in man; and being opposed to vices, have
deserved the great reputation which they have gained. But
who is so foolish, so senseless, as to say that God is great by
[merely] human excellences ? or that he is above all in the
greatness of his name, because he is not disgraced by vice ?
Whatever you say, whatever in unspoken thought you ima-
gine concerning God, passes and is corrupted into a human
sense, and does not carry its own meaning, because it is
spoken in the words which we use, and which are suited
[only] to human affairs. There is but one thing man can
be assured of regarding God's nature, to know and perceive
that nothing can be revealed in human language concerning
God.

20. This, then, this matter of forms and sexes, is the
first affront which you, noble advocates in sooth, and pious
writers, offer to your deities. But what is the next, that you
represent to us1 the gods, some as artificers, some physicians,
others working in wool, as sailors,2 players on the harp and
flute, hunters, shepherds, and, as there was nothing more,
rustics ? And that god, he says, is a musician, and this other
can divine; for the other gods cannot,3 and do not know

1 So the MS., followed by Oehler, reading nobis, for which all other
edd. give vobis — "to you."

2 Meursius would read naccas — "fullers," for nautas; but the latter
term may, properly enough, be applied to the gods who watch over
seamen.

8 Or, " for the others are not gods," i.e. cannot be gods, as they do

1G4 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK in.

how to foretell what will come to pass, owing to their want
of skill and ignorance of the future. One is instructed in
obstetric arts, another trained up in the science of medicine.
Is each, then, powerful in his own department ; and can
they give no assistance, if their aid is asked, in what belongs
to another? This one is eloquent in speech, and ready in
linking words together; for the others are stupid, and can
say nothing skilfully, if they must speak.

21. And, I ask, what reason is there, what unavoidable
necessity, what occasion for the gods knowing and being
acquainted with these handicrafts as though they were worth-
less mechanics? For, are songs sung and music played in
heaven, that the nine sisters may gracefully combine and
harmonize pauses and rhythms of tones ? Are there on the
mountains1 of the stars, forests, woods, groves, that2 Diana
may be esteemed very mighty in hunting expeditions ? Are
the gods ignorant of the immediate future; and do they
live and pass the time according to the lots assigned them
by fate, that the inspired son of Latona may explain and
declare what the morrow or the next hour bears to each?
Is he himself inspired by another god, and is he urged and
roused by the power of a greater divinity, so that he may be
rightly said and esteemed to be divinely inspired? Are the
gods liable to be seized by diseases ; and is there anything
by which they may be wounded and hurt, so that, when there
is occasion, he3 of Epidaurus may come to their assistance ?
Do they labour, do they bring forth, that Juno may soothe,
and Lucina abridge the terrible pangs of childbirth? Do
they engage in agriculture, or are they concerned with the
duties of war, that Vulcan, the lord of fire, may form for

not possess the power of divination. Cf. Lact. i. 11 : Sin autem divinus
non sit, ne deus quidem sit.

1 The MS., followed by LB. and Hild., reads sidereis motibus — " in
the motions of the stars ;" i.e. can these be in the stars, owing to their
motion? Oehler conjectures molibus — " in the masses of the stars ;" tho
other edd. read montibus, as above.

2 The MS., both Roman edd., and Oehler read habctur Diana — " is
Diana esteemed ; " the other edd., ut habeatur, &s above.

* i.e. .rfEsculapius.

BOOR in.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 165

them swords, or forge their rustic implements? Do they
need to be covered with garments, that the Tritonian1 maid
may, with nice skill,2 spin, weave cloth for them, and make3
them tunics to suit the season, either triple-twilled, or of
silken fabric 1 Do they make accusations and refute them,
that the descendant4 of Atlas may carry off the prize for
eloquence, attained by assiduous practice?

22. You err, my opponent says, and are deceived ; for the
gods are not themselves artificers, but suggest these arts to
ingenious men, and teach mortals what they should know,
that their mode of life may be more civilised. But he who
gives any instruction to the ignorant and unwilling, and
strives to make him intelligently expert in some kind of
work, must himself first know that which he sets the other
to practise. For no one can be capable of teaching a science
without knowing the rules of that which he teaches, and
having grasped its method most thoroughly. The gods are,
then, the first artificers ; whether because they inform the
minds [of men] with knowledge, as you say yourselves, or
because, being immortal and unbegotten, they surpass the
whole race of earth by their length of life.6 This, then, is
the question ; there being no occasion for these arts among
the gods, neither their necessities nor nature requiring in
them any ingenuity or mechanical skill, why you should say
that they are skilled,6 one in one craft, another in another,
and that individuals are pre-eminently expert 7 in particular
departments in which they are distinguished by acquaintance
with the several branches of science ?

1 i.e. Minerva.

2 "With nice skill ... for them," curiose Us; for which the MS. and
first five edd. read curiosius — "rather skilfully."

3 The MS. reads unintelligibly et imponere, for which Meursius emended
componat, as above.

4 Mercury, grandson of Atlas by Maia.

5 Lit., " by the long duration of time."

6 Lit., "skilled in notions" — perceptionibus ; for which prseceptionibus,
i.e. " the precepts of the different arts," has been suggested in the mar-
gin of Ursinus.

7 Lit., " and have skill (soUertias) in which individuals excel."

106 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK m.

23. But you will, perhaps, say that the gods are not arti-
ficers, but that they preside over these arts, [and] have their
oversight ; nay, that under their care all things have been
placed, which we manage and conduct, and that their pro-
vidence sees to the happy and fortunate issue of these. Now
this would certainly appear to be said justly, and with some
probability, if all we engage in, all we do, or all we attempt
in human affairs, sped as we wished and purposed. But since
every day the reverse is the case, and the results of actions
do not correspond to the purpose of the will, it is trifling to
say that we have, set as guardians over us, gods invented by
our superstitious fancy, not grasped with assured certainty.
Portunus1 gives to the sailor perfect safety in traversing the
seas; but why has the raging sea cast up so many cruelly-
shattered wrecks ? Census suggests to our minds courses
safe and serviceable ; and why does an unexpected change
perpetually issue in results other than were looked for?
Pales and Inuus 2 are set as guardians over the flocks and
herds ; why do they, with hurtful laziness,3 not take care to
avert from the herds in their summer pastures, cruel, infec-
tious, and destructive diseases ? The harlot Flora,4 vene-
rated in lewd sports, sees well to it that the fields blossom ;
and why are buds and tender plants daily nipt and destroyed
by most hurtful frost 1 Juno presides over childbirth, and
aids travailing mothers ; and why are a thousand mothers
every day cut off in murderous throes ? Fire is under Vul-
can's care, and its source is placed under his control ; and why
does he, very often, suffer temples and parts of cities to fall
into ashes devoured by flames ? The soothsayers receive the
knowledge of their art from the Pythian god ; and why does

1 According to Oehler, Portunus (Portumnus or Palsemon — " the god
who protects harbours") does not occur in the MS., which, he says, reads
per maria priestant — " through the seas they afford ;" emended as above
by TJrsinus, prsestat Portunus. Oehler himself proposes permarini —
u the sea gods afford."

2 Pales, i.e. the feeding one ; Inuus, otherwise Faunus and Pan.

3 Otherwise, " from the absence of rain."

4 So the margin of Ursinus, reading meretrix ; but in the first four
edd., LB., and Oberthur, genetrix — " mother," is retained from the MS.

BOOK in.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 167

he so often give and afford answers equivocal, doubtful,
steeped in darkness and obscurity? .^Esculapius presides
over the duties and arts of medicine ; and why cannot [men
in] more kinds of disease and sickness be restored to health
and soundness of body ? while, on the contrary, they become
worse under the hands of the physician. Mercury is occu-
pied with l combats, and presides over boxing and wrestling
matches ; and why does he not make all invincible who are
in his charge ? why, when appointed to one office, does he
enable some to win the victory, while he suffers others to be
ridiculed for their disgraceful weakness ?

24. No one, says my opponent, makes supplication to
the tutelar deities, and they therefore withhold their usual
favours and help. Cannot the gods, then, do good, except
they receive incense and consecrated offerings?2 and do they
quit and renounce their posts, unless they see their altars
anointed with the blood of cattle ? And yet I thought but
now that the kindness of the gods was of their own free will,
and that the unlooked-for gifts of benevolence flowed un-
sought from them. Is, then, the King of the universe soli-
cited by any libation or sacrifice to grant to the races of men
all the comforts of life ? Does the Deity not impart the sun's
fertilizing warmth, and the season of night, the winds, the rains,
the fruits, to all alike, — the good and the bad, the unjust and
the just,3 the free-born and the slave, the poor and the rich ?
For this belongs to the true and mighty God, to show kind-
ness, unasked, to that which is weary and feeble, and always
encompassed by misery of many kinds. For to grant your
prayers on the offering of sacrifices, is not to bring help to
those who ask it, but to sell the riches of their beneficence.
We men trifle, and are foolish in so great a matter; and,
forgetting what4 God is, and the majesty of his name, asso-

1 So LB., reading citra-t, the sis. omitting the last letter.

2 Lit, " salted fruits," the grits mixed with salt, strewed on the
victim.

3 Supplied by Ursinus.

4 So the edd. reading quid, except Hild. and Oehler, who retain the
MS. qui — " who."

168 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK HI.

ciate with the tutelar deities whatever meanness or baseness
our morbid credulity can invent.

25. Unxia, my opponent says, presides over the anointing
[of door-posts] ; Cinxia over the loosening of the zone ; the
most venerable Victa1 and Potua attend to eating and
drinking. O rare and admirable interpretation of the divine
powers ! would gods not have names if brides did not be-
smear their husbands' door-posts with greasy ointment;
were it not that husbands, when now eagerly drawing near,
unbind the maiden-girdle ; if men did not eat and drink ?
Moreover, not satisfied to have subjected and involved the
gods in cares so unseemly, you also ascribe to them disposi-
tions fierce, cruel, savage, ever rejoicing in the ills and de-
struction of mankind.

26. We shall not here mention Laverna, goddess of thieves,
the Bellonse, Discordise, Furise ; and we pass by in utter
silence the unpropitious deities whom you have set up. We
shall bring forward Mars himself, and the fair mother of
the Desires ; to one of whom you commit wars, to the other
love and passionate desire. My opponent says that Mars has
power over wars ; whether to quell those which are raging,
or to revive them when interrupted, and kindle them in time
of peace ? For if he calms the madness of war, why do wars
rage every day ? but if he is their author, we shall then say
that the god, to satisfy his own inclination, involves the
whole world in strife ; sows the seeds of discord and variance
between far-distant peoples ; gathers so many thousand men
from different quarters, and speedily heaps up the field with
dead bodies; makes the streams flow with blood, sweeps away
the most firmly-founded empires, lays cities in the dust, robs
the free of their liberty, and makes them slaves ; rejoices in
civil strife, in the bloody death of brothers who die in con-
flict, and, in fine, in the dire, murderous contest of children
with their fathers.

27. Now we may apply this very argument to Venus in
exactly the same way. For if, as you maintain and believe,
she fills men's minds with lustful thoughts, it must be held

1 The MS. reads Vita.

BOOK in.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 169

in consequence that any disgrace and misdeed arising from
such madness should be ascribed to the instigation of Venus.
Is it, then, under compulsion of the goddess that even the
noble too often betray their own reputation into the hands
of worthless harlots; that the firm bonds of marriage are
broken ; that near relations burn with incestuous lust ; that
mothers have their passions madly kindled towards their
children ; that fathers turn to themselves their daughters'
desires ; that old men, bringing shame upon their grey hairs,
sigh with the ardour of youth for the gratification of filthy
desires ; that wise and brave1 men, losing in effeminacy the
strength of their manhood, disregard the biddings of con-
stancy ; that the noose is twisted about their necks ; that
blazing pyres are ascended;2 and that in different places
men, leaping voluntarily, cast themselves headlong over very
high and huge precipices?3

28. Can any man, who has accepted the first principles
even of reason, be found to mar or dishonour the unchanging
nature of Deity with morals so vile ? to credit the gods with
natures such as human kindness has often charmed away
and moderated in the beasts of the field ? How,4 I ask, can
it be said that the gods are far removed from any feeling of
passion ? that they are gentle, lovers of peace, mild ? that in
the completeness of their excellence they reach 5 the height
of perfection, and the highest wisdom also? or, why should
we pray them to avert from us misfortunes and calamities,
if we find that they are themselves the authors of all the ills
by which we are daily harassed ? Call us impious as much
as you please, contemners of religion, or atheists, you will
never make us believe in gods of love and war, that there are
gods to sow strife, and to disturb the mind by the stings of

1 i.e. those who subdue their own spirits. " Constancy " is the ti/Tci-
6nct of the Stoics.

2 Referring to Dido.

3 As despairing lovers are said to have sought relief in death, by leap-
ing from the Leucadian rock into the sea.

* Lit., " where, I ask, is the [assertion] that," etc.

• Lit., " hold."

170 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK in.

the furies. For either they are gods in very truth, and do
not do what you have related ; or if l they do the things
which you say, they are doubtless no gods [at all].

29. We might, however, even yet be able to receive from
you these thoughts, most full of wicked falsehoods, if it were
not that you yourselves, in bringing forward many things
about the gods so inconsistent and mutually destructive,
compel us to withhold our minds from assenting. For when
you strive individually to excel each other in reputation for
more recondite knowledge, you both overthrow the very
gods in whom you believe, and replace them by others who
have clearly no existence ; and different men give different
opinions on the same subjects,2 and you write that those
whom general consent has ever received as single persons
are infinite in number. Let us, too, begin duly, then, with
father Janus, whom certain of you have declared to be the
world, others the year, some the sun. But if we are to be-
lieve that this is true, it follows as a consequence, that it
should be understood that there never was any Janus, who,
they say, being sprung from Ccelus and Hecate, reigned
first in Italy, founded the town Janiculum, was the father of
Fons,3 the son-in-law of Vulturnus, the husband of Juturna;
and thus you erase the name of the god to whom in all
prayers you give the first place, and whom you believe to
procure for you a hearing from the gods. But, again, if
Janus be the year, neither thus can he be a god. For who
does not know that the year is a fixed space 4 of time, and
that there is nothing divine in that which is formed5 by the
duration of months and lapse of days ? Now this very [argu-
ment] may, in like manner, be applied to Saturn. For if
time is meant under this title, as the expounders of Grecian
ideas think, so that that is regarded as Kronos,6 which is
chronos,7 there is no such deity as Saturn. For who is so

1 In the MS. these words, aut si, are wanting.

2 Stewechius and Orelli would omit rebus, and interpret " about the
same gods." Instead of de — "about," the MS. has deos.

3 The MS. reads fonti, corrected by Meursius Fontis, as above.

4 Lit. "circuit." 5 Lit., " finished." 6 i.e. the god. 7 i.e. time.

BOOK in.] AENOB1US AD VERSUS G ENTES. 171

senseless as to say that time is a god, when it is but a certain
space measured off l in the unending succession of eternity ?
And thus will be removed from the rank of the immortals
that deity too, whom the men of old declared, and handed
down to their posterity, to be born of father Coelus, the pro-
genitor of the dii magnif the planter of the vine, the bearer
of the pruning-knife.2

30. But what shall we say of Jove himself, whom the
wise have repeatedly asserted to be the sun, driving a
winged chariot, followed by a crowd of deities;3 some, the
ether, blazing with mighty flames, and wasting fire which
cannot be extinguished ? Now if this is clear and certain,
there is, then, according to you, no Jupiter at all ; who,
born of Saturn his father and Ops his mother, is reported
to have been concealed in the Cretan territory, that he might
escape his father's rage. But now, does not a similar mode
of thought remove Juno from the list of gods ? For if she
is the air, as you have been wont to jest and say, repeating
in reversed order the [syllables] of the Greek name,4 there
will be found no sister and spouse of almighty Jupiter, no
Fluonia,5 no Pomona, no Ossipagina, no Februtis, Popu-
lonia, Cinxia, Caprotina ; and thus the invention of that
name, spread abroad with a frequent but vain 6 belief, will
be found to be wholly 7 useless.

31. Aristotle, a man of most powerful intellect, and dis-
tinguished for learning, as Granius tells, shows by plausible
arguments that Minerva is the moon, and proves it by the
authority of learned men. Others have said that this very
goddess is the depth of ether, and utmost height ; some
[have maintained] that she is memory, whence her name
even, Minerva, has arisen, as if she were some goddess of

1 Lit., " the measuring of a certain space included in," etc.

2 Cf. vl 12. 8 Cf. Plato, Phsedr. st. p. 246.

4 Lit., " the reversed order of the Greek name being repeated," i.e.
instead of y-px, d-y,p.

5 The MS. gives Fluvionia.

6 Lit., " with the frequency (or fame) of vain," etc.

7 Lit., u very."

172 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK m.

memory. But if this is credited, it follows that there is no
daughter of Metis, no daughter of Victory, no discoverer of
the Olive, born from the head of Jupiter, no [goddess] skilled
in the knowledge of the arts, and in different branches of
learning. Neptune, they say, has received his name and
title because he covers the earth with water. If, then, by
the use of this name is meant the outspread water, there is
no god Neptune at all ; and thus is put away, and removed
[from us], the full brother of Pluto and Jupiter, armed with
the iron trident, lord of the fish, great and small, king of the
depths of the sea, and shaker of the trembling earth.1

32. Mercury, also, has been named as though he were a
kind of go-between ; and because conversation passes be-
tween two speakers, and is exchanged by them, that which
is expressed by this name has been produced.2 If this, then,
is the case, Mercury is not the name of a god, but of speech
and words exchanged [by two persons] ; and in this way is
blotted out and annihilated the noted Cylleuian bearer of the
caduceus, born on the cold mountain top,3 contriver of words
and names, [the god] who presides over markets, and over
the exchange of goods and commercial intercourse. Some
of you have said that the earth is the Great Mother,4 because
it provides all things living with food ; others declare that
the same [earth] is Ceres, because it brings forth crops of
useful fruits;5 while some maintain that it is Vesta, because
it alone in the universe is at rest, its other members being,
by their constitution, ever in motion. Now if this is pro-
pounded and maintained on sure grounds, in like manner, on
your interpretation, three deities have no existence : neither
Ceres nor Vesta are to be reckoned in the number6 of the
gods ; nor, in fine, can the mother of the gods herself, whom
Nigidius thinks to have been married to Saturn, be rightly

1 So Meursius emended the sis. sail — " sea."

2 Lit., " the quality of this name has been adjusted."

3 So Orelli, reading monte vertice; the last word, according to Oehler,
not being found in the MS.

4 i.e. Cybele. Of. Lucr. ii. 991 sqq. c Lit., " seeds."
* Fasti — "list," " register."

BOOK in.] AENOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 173

declared a goddess, if indeed these are all names of the one
earth, and it alone is signified by these titles.

33. We here leave Vulcan unnoticed, to avoid prolixity ;
whom you all declare to be fire, with one consenting voice.
[We pass by] Venus, named because [love] assails all, and
Proserpina, named because plants steal gradually forth into
the light, — where, again, you do away with three deities ; if
indeed the first is the name of an element, and does not
signify a living power ; the second, of a desire common to
all living creatures; while the third refers to seeds rising
above ground, and the upward movements1 of growing
crops. What! when you maintain that Bacchus, Apollo,
the Sun, are one deity, [seemingly] increased in number
by the use of three names, is not the number of the gods
lessened, and their vaunted reputation overthrown, by your
opinions'? For if it is true that the sun is also Bacchus
and Apollo, there can consequently be in the universe no
Apollo or Bacchus; and thus, by yourselves, the son of
Semele [and] the Pythian god are blotted out [and] set
aside, — one the giver of drunken merriment, the other the
destroyer of Sminthian mice.

34. Some of your learned men2 — men, too, who do not
chatter [merely] because their humour leads them — maintain
that Diana, Ceres, Luna, are but one deity in triple union;3
and that there are not three distinct persons, as there are
three different names ; that in all these Luna is invoked,
and that the others are a series of surnames added to her
name. But if this is sure, if this is certain, and the facts
of the case show it to be so, again is Ceres but an empty
name, and Diana : and thus the discussion is brought to
this issue, that you lead and advise us to believe that she
whom you maintain to be the discoverer of the earth's fruits
has no existence, and Apollo is robbed of his sister, whom

1 Lit., "motions."

8 Cf. Servius ad Virg. Georg, i. 7 : " The Stoics say that Luna, Diana,
Ceres, Juno, and Proserpina are one ; following whom, Virgil invoked
Liber and Ceres for Sol and Luna."

8 Triviali — " common," "vulgar," seems to be here used for triplici.

174 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK m.

once the horned hunter1 gazed upon as she washed her limbs
from [sweat and] impurity in a pool, and paid the penalty of
his curiosity.

35. Men worthy to be remembered in the study of
philosophy, who have been raised by your praises to its
highest place, declare, with commendable earnestness, as
their conclusion, that the whole mass of the world, by whose
folds we all are encompassed, covered, and upheld, is one
animal2 possessed of wisdom and reason ; yet if this is a
true, sure, and certain opinion,3 they also will forthwith
cease to be gods whom you set up a little ago in its parts
without change of name.4 For as one man cannot, while
his body remains entire, be divided into many men ; nor can
many men, while they continue to be distinct and separate
from each other,5 be fused into one sentient individual : so,
if the world is a single animal, and moves from the impulse
of one mind, neither can it be dispersed in several deities ,
nor, if the gods are parts of it, can they be brought together
and changed into one living creature, with unity of feeling
throughout all its parts. The moon, the sun, the earth, the
ether, the stars, are members and parts of the world ; but
if they are parts and members, they "are certainly not them-
selves6 living creatures; for in no thing can parts be the
very thing which the whole is, or think and feel for them-
selves, for this cannot be effected by their own actions,
without the whole creature's joining in ; and this being
established and settled, the whole matter comes back to
this, that neither Sol, nor Luna, nor ^Ether, Tellus, and the
rest, are gods. For they are parts of the world, not the
proper names of deities ; and thus it is brought about that,

1 Actseon. 2 Plato, Timaeus, st. p. 30.

8 Lit., "of which things, however, if the opinion," etc.

4 i.e. deifying parts of the universe, and giving them, as deities, the
same names as before.

5 Lit., "the difference of their disjunction being preserved" — multi
disjunclionis differentia conservata, suggested in the margin of Ursinus
for the MS. multitudinis junctionis d. c., retained in the first five edd.

6 Lit., " of their own name."

BOOK in.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 175

by your disturbing and confusing all divine things, the world
is set up as the sole god in the universe, while all the rest
are cast aside, and that [as] having been set up vainly, use-
lessly, and without any reality.

36. If we sought to subvert the belief in your gods in so
many ways, by so many arguments, no one would doubt
that, mad with rage and fury, you would demand for us
the stake, the beasts, and swords, with the other kinds of
torture by which you usually appease your thirst in its in-
tense craving for our blood. But while you yourselves put
away almost the whole race of deities with a pretence of
cleverness and wisdom, you do not hesitate to assert that,
because of us, men suffer ill at the hands of the gods ;x
although, indeed, if it is true that they anywhere exist, and
burn with anger and 2 rage, there can be no better reason for
their showing anger against you,3 than that you deny their
existence, and [say] that they are not [found] in any part of
the universe.

37. We are told by Mnaseas that the Muses are the
daughters of Tellus and Coelus ; others declare [that they
are] Jove's by his wife Memory, or Mens ; some relate that
they were virgins, others that they were matrons. For now
•we wish to touch briefly on the points where you are shown,
from the difference of your opinions, to make different state-
ments about the same thing. Ephorus, then, says that they
are three* in number; Mnaseas, whom we mentioned, [that
they are] four;5 Myrtilus6 brings forward seven; Crates

1 Lit., "for the sake of our name, men's affairs are made harass-
ing."

2 Lit., " with flames of," etc.

3 The MS., according to Crusius, reads no* — " us."

4 Three was the most ancient number ; and the names preserved by
Pausanias, are MfXsrw, 'Ao/Bjj, My^>j.

5 Cicero (de Nat. Deor. iii. 21, a passage where there is some doubt
as to the reading) enumerates as the four muses, Thelxiope, Aoede,
Arche, Melete.

6 The MS. reads Murtylus. Seven are said to have been mentioned
by Epicharmus,— Neilous, Tritone, Asopous, Heptapolis, Achelois, Tipo-
plous, and Rhodia.

176 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boos m.

asserts that there are eight ; finally Hesiod, enriching heaven
and the stars with gods, comes forward with nine names.1

If we are not mistaken, such want of agreement marks
those who are wholly ignorant of the truth, and does not
spring from the real state of the case. For if their number
were clearly known, the voice of all would be the same, and
the agreement of all would tend to and find issue in the same
conclusion.2

38. How, then, can you give to religion its whole power,
when you fall into error about the gods themselves ? or
summon us to their solemn worship, while you give us no
definite information how to conceive of the deities them-
selves ? For, to take no notice of the other 3 authors, either
the first4 makes away with and destroys six divine Muses, if
they are certainly nine ; or the last 5 adds six who have no
existence to the three who alone really are ; so that it cannot
be known or understood what should be added, what taken
away ; and iu the performance of religious rites we are in
danger 6 of either worshipping that which does not exist, or
passing that by which, it may be, does exist. Piso believes
that the Novensiles are nine gods, set up among the Sabines
at Trebia.7 Granius thinks that they are the Muses, agree-
ing with ^Elius ; Varro teaches that they are nine,8 because,
in doing anything, [that number] is always reputed most
powerful and greatest; Cornificius,9 that they watch over
the renewing of things,10 because, by their care, all things are
afresh renewed in strength, and endure ; Manilius, that they

1 The nine are Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato,
Polymnia, Ourania, and Calliope (Theog. 77-79).

2 Lit., " into the end of the same opinion."
8 Lit, "in the middle," "intermediate."

* i.e. Ephorus. s i.e. Hesiod.

6 Lit., " the undertaking of religion itself is brought into the danger,"
etc.

7 An TJmbrian village.

8 Lit., " that the number is nine."

9 A grammarian who lived in the time of Augustus, not to be con-
founded with Cicero's correspondent.

10 Novitatum.

BOOK in.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. '177

are the nine gods to whom alone Jupiter gave power to wield
his thunder.1 Cincius declares them to be deities brought
from abroad, named from their very newness, because the
Romans were in the habit of sometimes individually intro-
ducing into their families the rites2 of conquered cities, while
some they publicly consecrated ; and lest, from their great
number, or in ignorance, any god should be passed by, all
alike were briefly and compendiously invoked under one
name — Novensiles.

39. There are some, besides, who assert that those who
from being men became gods, are denoted by this name, — as
Hercules, Romulus, ^Esculapius, Liber, ^Eneas. These are
all, as is clear, different opinions ; and it cannot be, in the
nature of things, that those who differ in opinion can be
regarded as teachers of one truth. For if Piso's opinion is
true, ^Elius and Granius say what is false ; if what they say
is certain, Varro, with all his skill,3 is mistaken, who substi-
tutes things most frivolous and vain for those which really
exist. If they are named Novensiles because their number
is nine,4 Cornificius is shown to stumble, who, giving them
might and power not their own, makes them the divine over-
seers of renovation.5 But if Cornificius is right in his belief,
Cincius is found [to be] not wise, who connects with the
power of the dii Novensiles the gods of conquered cities.
But if they are those whom Cincius asserts [them to be],
Manilius will be found to speak falsely, who comprehends
those who wield another's thunder under this name.6 But
if that which Manilius holds is true and certain, they are
utterly mistaken who suppose that those raised to divine
honours, and deified mortals, are [thus] named because of

1 The Etruscans held (Pliny, H. N. ii. 52) that nine gods could
thunder, the bolts being of different kinds : the Romans so far main-
tained this distinction as to regard thunder during the day as sent by
Jupiter, at night by Summanus.

2 So LB., reading rehg- for the MS. reg-iones.

3 Lit, " the very skilful."

4 Lit., " if the number nine bring on the name of," etc.

6 Lit., " gives another's might and power to gods presiding."

6 Lit., " the title of this name."

ARNOB. M

178 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK m.

the novelty of their rank. But if the Novensiles are those
who have deserved to be raised to the stars after passing
through the life of men,1 there are no dii Novensiles at all.
For as slaves, soldiers, masters, are not names of persons
comprehended under them,2 but of offices, ranks, and duties,
so, when we say that Novensiles is the name 3 of gods who
by their virtues have become4 gods from being men, it is
clear and evident that no individual persons are marked out
particularly, but that newness itself is named by the title
Novensiles.

40. Nigidius taught that the dii Penates were Neptune
and Apollo, who once, on fixed terms, girt Ilium5 with walls.
He himself again, in his sixteenth book, following Etruscan
teaching, shows that there are four kinds of Penates ; and
that one of these pertains to Jupiter, another to Neptune,
the third to the shades below, the fourth to mortal men,
making some unintelligible assertion. Ca3sius himself, also,
following this [teaching], thinks that they are Fortune, and
Ceres, the genius Jovialis,6 and Pales, but not the female
[deity] commonly received,7 but some male attendant and
steward of Jupiter. Varro thinks that they are the gods of
whom we speak who are within, and in" the inmost recesses of
heaven, and that neither their number nor names are known.
The Etruscans say that these are the Consentes and Com-
plices,8 and name them because they rise and fall together,

1 Lit., " after they have finished the mortality of life," i.e. either as
above, or " having endured its perishableness."

2 Lit., " lying under."

8 So most edd., following Gelenius, who reads esse nomen for the MS.
si omnes istud.

* Lit., " who have deserved to," etc.

5 The MS. reads immortalium, corrected in the edd. urbern Ilium.

6 Supposed to be either the genius attending Jupiter ; the family god
as sent by him ; or the chief among the genii, sometimes mentioned
simply as Genius.

7 Lit., " whom the commonalty receives."

6 Consentes (those who are together, or agree together, i.e. coun-
cillors) and Complices (confederate, or agreeing) are said by some to be
the twelve gods who composed the great council of heaven; and, in

BOOK m.] ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 179

six of them being male, and as many female, with unknown
names and pitiless dispositions,1 but they are considered the
counsellors and princes of Jove supreme. There were some,
too, who said that Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva were the dii
Penates, without whom we cannot live and be wise, and by
whom we are ruled within in reason, passion, and thought.
As you see, even here, too, nothing is said harmoniously,
nothing is settled with the consent of all, nor is there any-
thing reliable on which the mind can take its stand, drawing
by conjecture very near to the truth. For their opinions are
so doubtful, and one supposition so discredited2 by another,
that there is either no truth in them all, or if it is uttered
by any, it is not recognised amid so many different state-
ments.

41. We can, if it is thought proper, speak briefly of the
Lares also, whom the mass think to be the gods of streets
and ways, because the Greeks name streets laurce. In dif-
ferent parts of his writings, Nigidius [speaks of them] now
as the guardians of houses and dwellings ; now as the Curetes,
who are said to have once concealed, by the clashing of cym-
bals,3 the infantile cries of Jupiter; now the five Digiti
Samothracii, who, the Greeks tell [us], were named Idaei
Dactyli. Varro, with like hesitation, says at one time that

accordance with this, the words una oriantur et occidant una might be
translated " rise and sit down together," i.e. at the council table. But
then, the names and number of these are known ; while Arnobius says,
immediately after, that the names of the dii Consentes are not known,
and has already quoted Varro, to the effect that neither names nor
number are known. Schelling (iiber die Gotth. v. Samoihr., quoted by
Orelli) adopts the reading (see following note), " of whom very little
mention is made," i.e. in prayers or rites, because they are merely Jove's
councillors, and exercise no power over men, and identifies them with
the Samothracian Cabiri — KdBnoot and Consentes being merely Greek
and Latin renderings of the name.

1 So the MS. and all edd. reading miserationis parcissimas, except
Gelenius, who reads nationis barbarissimss — " of a most barbarous
nation ;" while Ursinus suggested memorationis pare. — " of whom very
little mention is made," — the reading approved by Schelling.

2 Lit., " shaken to its foundations."
8 &ribus. Cf. Lucretius, ii. 633-6.

180 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF BOOK m.]

they are the Manes,1 and therefore the mother of the Lares
was named Mania ; at another time, again, he maintains
that they are gods of the air, and are termed heroes ; at
another, following the opinion of the ancients, he says that
the Lares are ghosts, as it were a kind of tutelary demon,
spirits of dead 2 men.

42. It is a vast and endless task to examine each kind
separately, and make it evident even from your religious
books that you neither hold nor believe that there is any god
concerning whom you have not3 brought forward doubtful
and inconsistent statements, expressing a thousand different
beliefs. But, to be brief, and avoid prolixity,4 it is enough
to have said what has been said ; it is, further, too trouble-
some to gather together many things into one mass, since
it is made manifest and evident in different ways that you
waver, and say nothing with certainty of these things which
you assert. But you will perhaps say, Even if we have no
personal knowledge of the Lares, Novensiles, Penates, still
the very agreement of our authors proves their existence,
and that such a race 5 takes rank among the celestial gods.
And how can it be known whether there is any god, if what
he is shall be wholly unknown?6 or "how can it avail even
to ask for benefits, if it is not settled and determined who
should be invoked at each inquiry?7 For every one who
seeks to obtain an answer from any deity, should of neces-
sity know to whom he makes supplication, on whom he
calls, from whom he asks help for the affairs and occasions
of human life ; especially as you yourselves declare that all
the gods do not have all power, and8 that the wrath and
anger of each are appeased by different rites.

1 The MS. reads manas, corrected as above by all edd. except Hild.,
who reads Manias.

2 The MS. reads effunctorum ; LB. et funct., from the correction of
Stewechius ; Gelenius, with most of the other edd., def.

3 The MS. and first ed. omit non. 4 Lit., "because of aversion."
5 Lit., " the form of their race." 6 i.e. ignorabitur et nescietur.

7 The MS. reads consolationem — " for each consolation," i.e. to comfort
iu every distress.

8 The MS. omits et.

BOOK m.] ARNOBWS ADVERSUS GENTES. 181

43. For if this [deity] l requires a black, that 2 a white
skin ; [if] sacrifice must be made to this one with veiled, to
that with uncovered head ;3 this one is consulted about mar-
riages,4 the other relieves distresses, — may it not be of some
importance whether the one or the other is Novensilis, since
ignorance of the facts and confusion of persons displeases
the gods, and leads necessarily to the contraction of guilt ?
For suppose that I myself, to avoid some inconvenience and
peril, make supplication to any one of these deities, saying,
Be present, be near, divine Penates, thou Apollo, and thou,

0 Neptune, and in your divine clemency turn away all
these evils, by which I am annoyed,5 troubled, and tor-
mented : will there be any hope that I shall receive help
from them, if Ceres, Pales, Fortune, or the genius Jovialis,6
not Neptune and Apollo, shall be the dii Penates ? Or if

1 invoked the Curetes instead of the Lares, whom some of
your writers maintain to be the Digiti Samothracii, how
shall I enjoy their help and favour, when I have not given
them their own names, and have given to the others names
not their own ? Thus does our interest demand that we
should rightly know the gods, and not hesitate or doubt
about the power, the name of each ; lest,7 if they be invoked
with rites and titles not their own, they have at once their
ears stopped [against our prayers], and hold us involved in
guilt which may not be forgiven.

44. Wherefore, if you are assured that in the lofty palaces
of heaven there dwells, there is, that multitude of deities

1 The dii inferi. 2 The dii superi.

3 Saturn and Hercules were so worshipped. * Apollo.

6 The MS., first five edd., and Oehler read terreor — " terrified ;" the
others tor., as above, from the conjecture of Gifanius.

6 Cf. ch. 40, note 6. It may further be observed that the Etruscans
held that the superior and inferior gods and men were linked together
by a kind of intermediate beings, through whom the gods took cog-
nizance of human affairs, without themselves descending to earth.
These were divided into four classes, assigned to Tina (Jupiter), Nep-
tune, the gods of the nether world, and men respectively.

7 So LB., Hild., and Oehler, reading nomine ne . all others ul, the MS
having no conjunction.

182 AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. £BooK HI.

whom you specify, you should make your stand on one
proposition,1 and not, divided by different and inconsistent
opinions, destroy belief in the very things which you seek to
establish. If there is a Janus, let Janus be ; if a Bacchus,
let Bacchus be ; if a Summanus,2 let Summanus be : for
this is to confide, this to hold, to be settled in the knowledge
of something ascertained, not to say after the manner of the
blind and erring, The Novensiles are the Muses, in truth
they are the Trebian gods, nay, their number is nine, or
rather, they are the protectors of cities which have been over-
thrown ; and bring so important matters into this danger,
that while you remove some, and put others in their place,
it may well be doubted of them all if they anywhere exist.

1 Lit., " it is fitting that you stand in the limits of," etc.
* i.e. Summus Manium, Pluto,

BOOK IV.

ARGUMENT.

ARXOBIUS now attacks the heathen mythology, pointing out that such
deities as Piety, Concord, Safety, and the like, could only be mere
abstractions (1, 2) ; while, as to many others, it would be difficult to
suppose — especially when facts are compared with theories — that they
were seriously spoken of as deities, e.g. Luperca, Praestana, Pantica (3),
and Pellonia (4) ; the sinister deities (5) ; Lateranus, a god degraded
to the kitchen (6) ; and others to whom were assigned obscene and
trifling offices (7) ; and asking whether the existence of these deities
depended on the things for which they cared, or the performance of
the offices over which they were set, and how, if they were first in
the order of existence, they could be named from things which did
not then exist, and how their names were known (8). Common-sense
will not allow us to believe in gods of Gain, Lust, Money, and the rest
(9) ; and besides, we could not stop here, for if there were gods to pre-
side over bones, honey, thresholds, we should find it impossible to deny
that everywhere and for everything there are special gods (10). What
proof, it is asked, do the gods give of their existence ? do they appear
when invoked? do they give true oracles (11)? how were they made
known to men, and how could it be certain that some one did not take
the place of all those supposed to be present at different rites (12)?
Arnobius next goes on to point out that several deities were spoken of
•under one name, while, on the contrary, several names were sometimes
applied to one deity (13) ; e.g. there were three Jupiters, five Suns and
Mercuries, five Minervas (14), four Vulcans, three Dianas and .JSsculapii,
six called Hercules, and four called Venus, and others, in like manner,
from which would arise much confusion (15) ; for if Minerva were in-
Toked, the five might be supposed to appear, each claiming the honour
of deity as her own, in which case the position of the worshipper would
be one of danger and perplexity (16). The others might be similarly
referred to, and this alone would make it impossible to believe in these
deities (17). And if it should be said that these writings are false, it
might be answered that it is only of such published statements that
notice could be taken ; and that, if they were discredited, this fact
should be made evident ; and, finally, that from them all the religious
ideas of the heathen were drawn (18). In saying that a god was
183

184 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK iv.

sprung from such a father and mother, the thought might have sug-
gested itself, that in this there was something human, something not
befitting deity (19) ; but, so far from this, they had added everything
degrading and horrible (20). Jupiter had such an origin, they said,
and the Thunderer was once a helpless infant tended by his nurse (21) ;
and — which was even more degrading and unseemly — in turn he, too,
was subject to lust and passion, even descending to intercourse with
mortals (22, 23). Here, Arnobius says, would be found the cause of all
the miseries of which they complained, and these, therefore, were to be
laid to the account, not of the Christians, but of the heathen, for it was
they who devised such hideous, absurd, and blasphemous tales about
the deities, which are either utterly false, or conclusively disprove the
existence of such gods (24-28). Here it might have been shown that
all the gods were originally men, by referring to various historians (29) ;
but this is not done, because the purpose of Arnobius was merely to
show that it was the heathen, not the Christians, who did the gods dis-
honour. True worship is not ritual observance, but right thoughts ; and
therefore the resentment of the gods would be excited rather by the
infamous tales of the heathen, than by the neglect of the Christians
(30, 31) ; and whoever might have invented them, the great body of
the people were to blame, in that they allowed it to be done, and even
took pleasure in reading or hearing such stories, although they had
secured not merely the great, but even private persons from libels and
calumnies by the strictest laws (32-34). But not merely did they
suffer things to be written with impunity which dishonoured the gods,
similar plays were also acted on the stage (35) ; and in these the gods
were even made a laughing-stock, to the" great delight of crowded
audiences (35, 36). And yet, though they were so open and unblush-
ing in the insults which they offered the gods, they did not hesitate to
accuse the Christians of impiety, who were not guilty in this respect at
all (37). If, therefore, the gods are angry, it is not because of the
Christians, but because of their own worshippers (38).

would ask you, and you above all, O Romans,
lords and princes of the world, whether you
think that Piety, Concord, Safety, Honour,
Virtue, Happiness, and other such names, to
which we see you rear1 altars and splendid temples, have
divine power, and live in heaven?2 or, as is usual, have you
classed them with the deities merely for form's sake, because
we desire and wish these blessings to fall to our lot? For

1 Lit., " see altars built."

8 Lit., " in the regions of heaven."

BOOK iv.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 185

if, while you think them empty names without any sub-
stance, you yet deify them with divine honours,1 you will have
to consider whether that is a childish frolic, or tends to bring
your deities into contempt,2 when you make equal, and add
to their number vain and feigned names. But if you have
loaded them with temples and couches, holding with more
assurance that these, too, are deities, we pray you to teach
[us in] our ignorance, by what course, in what way, Victory,
Peace, Equity, and the others mentioned among the gods,
can be understood to be gods, to belong to the assembly of
the immortals?

2. For we (but, perhaps, you [would] rob and deprive
us of common-sense) feel and perceive that none of these
has divine power, or possesses a form of its own ;3 but that,
[on the contrary,] they are the excellence of manhood,4 the
safety of the safe, the honour of the respected, the victory
of the conqueror, the harmony of the allied, the piety of the
pious, the recollection of the observant, the good fortune,
indeed, of him who lives happily and without exciting any
ill-feeling. Now it is easy to perceive that, in speaking
thus, we speak most reasonably when we observe6 the con-
trary qualities opposed [to them], misfortune, discord, forget-
f ulness, injustice, impiety, baseness of spirit, and unfortunate6
weakness of body. For as these things happen accidentally,
and7 depend on human acts [and] chance moods, so their
contraries, named8 after more agreeable qualities, must be

1 The MS. reads tarn (corrected by the first four edd. tamen) in
regionibus—" in the divine seats ; " corrected, religionibus, as above, by
Ursinus.

2 Lit., " to the deluding of your deities."

3 Lit., " is contained in a form of its own kind."

4 i.e. manliness.

5 Lit., "which it is easy to perceive to be said by us with the greatest
truth from," etc., — so most edd. reading nobis; but the MS., according
to Crusius, gives vobis — " you," as in Orelli and Oberthiir.

6 Lit., " less auspicious."

7 The MS., first four edd., and Elmenhorst, read quie — " which ; " the
rest, as above, que.

8 Lit., "what is opposed to them named," nominatum ; a correction
by Oehler for the MS. nominatur — " is named."

186 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK iv.

found in others; and from these, originating in this wise,
have arisen those invented names.

3. With regard, indeed, to your bringing forward to us
other bands of unknown1 gods, we cannot determine whether
you do that seriously, and from a belief in its certainty ; or,
[merely] playing with empty fictions, abandon yourselves to
an unbridled imagination. The goddess Luperca, you tell
us on the authority of Varro, was named because the fierce
wolf spared the exposed children. Was that goddess, then,
disclosed, not by her own power, [but] by the course of
events ? and was it [only] after the wild beast restrained its
cruel teeth, that she both began to be herself and was marked
by 2 her name ? or if she was already a goddess long before
the birth of Romulus and his brother, show us what was her
name and title. Prsestana was named, according to you,
because, in throwing the javelin, Quirinus excelled all in
strength;3 and the goddess Panda, or Pantica, was named
because Titus Tatius was allowed to open up and make
passable a road, that he might take the Capitoline. Before
these events, then, had the deities never existed? and if
Romulus had not held the first place in casting the javelin,
and if the Sabine king had been unable to take the Tarpeian
rock, would there be no Pantica, no Praestana? And if you
say that they4 existed before that which gave rise to their
name, a question which has been discussed in a preceding
section,5 tell us also what they were called.

4. Pellonia is a goddess mighty to drive back enemies.
Whose enemies, say, if it is convenient ? Opposing armies
meet, and fighting together, hand to hand, decide the battle ;
and to one this side, to another that, is hostile. Whom, then,
will Pellonia turn to flight, since on both sides there will be

1 The MS. and both Koman edd. read signatorum — " sealed ; " the
others, except Hild., ignotorum, as above.

2 Lit., " drew the meaning of her name."

3 Lit., "excelled the might of all."

4 MS., " that these, too," i.e. as well as Luperca.

6 No such discussion occurs in the preceding part of the work, but
the subject is brought forward in the end of ch. viii.

BOOK iv.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 187

fightincr ? or in favour of whom will she incline, seeing that

o D 7 o

she should afford to both sides the might and services of her
name? But if she indeed1 did so, that is, if she gave her
good-will and favour to both sides, she would destroy the
meaning of her name, which was formed with regard to the
beating back of one side. But you will perhaps say, She
is goddess of the Romans only, and, being on the side of
the Quirites alone, is ever ready graciously to help them.2
We wish, indeed, that it were so, for we like the name ; but
it is a very doubtful matter. What ! do the Romans have
gods to themselves, who do not help3 other nations? and
how can they be gods, if they do not exercise their divine
power impartially towards all nations everywhere ? and where,
I pray you, was this goddess Pellonia long ago, when the
national honour was brought under the yoke at the Caudine
Forks? when at the Trasimene lake the streams ran with
blood? when the plains of Diomede4 were heaped up with
dead Romans ? when a thousand other blows were sustained
in countless disastrous battles ? Was she snoring and sleep-
ing ; or, as the base often do, had she deserted to the enemies'
camp?

5. The sinister deities preside over the regions on the left
hand only, and are opposed to those5 on the right. But with
what reason this is said, or with what meaning, we do not
understand ourselves ; and we are sure that you cannot in
any degree cause it to be clearly and generally understood.6
For in the first place, indeed, the world itself has in itself
neither right nor left, neither upper nor under regions, neither
fore nor after [parts]. For whatever is round, and bounded
on every side by the circumference 7 of a solid sphere, has
no beginning, no end ; where there is no end and begin-

1 In the first sentence the MS. reads utrique, and in the second utique,
•which is reversed in most edd., as above.

2 Lit., "ever at hand with gracious assistances."

3 Lit., " are not of." 4 i.e. the field of Canasc.

5 Lit., " the parts."

6 Lit., " it cannot be brought into any light of general understanding
by you."

7 Lit, " convexity."

188 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boos iv.

ning, no part can have1 its own name and form the begin-
ning. Therefore, when we say, This is the right, and that
the left side, we do not refer to anything2 in the world,
which is everywhere very much the same, but to our own
place and position, we being3 so formed that we speak of
some things as on our right hand, of others as on our left ;
and yet these very things which we name left, and the others
[which we name] right, have in us no continuance, no fixed-
ness, but take their forms from our sides, just as chance,
and the accident of the moment, may have placed us. If I
look towards the rising sun, the north pole and the north are
on my left hand; and if I turn my face thither, the west
will be on my left, for it will be regarded as behind the sun's
back. But, again, if I turn my eyes to the region of the
west, the wind and country of the south are now said to be
on 4 my left ; and if I am turned to this side by the necessary
business of the moment, the result is, that the east is said
[to be] on the left, owing to a further change of position,5 —
from which it can be very easily seen that nothing is either
on our right or on our left by nature, but from position, time,0
and according as our bodily position with regard to surround-
ing objects has been taken up. But in this case, by what
means, in what way, will there be gods of the regions of the
left, when it is clear that the same regions are at one time on
the right, at another on the left ? or what have the regions
of the right done to the immortal gods, to deserve that they
should be without any to care for them, while they have
ordained that these should be fortunate, and ever [accom-
panied] by lucky omens ?

1 Lit,, " be of." 2 Lit., " to the state of the world."

3 Lit., " who have been so formed, that some things are said by us,"
nobis, the reading of Oberthiir and Orelli for the MS. in nos — " with re-
gard to us," which is retained by the first four edd., Elm., Hild., and
Oehler.

4 i.e. transit in vocdbulum sinistri; in being omitted in the MS. and both
Roman edd.

5 Lit., " the turning round of the body being changed."

6 So Oehler, reading positione, sed tempore sed, for the MS. positions ei
lentporis et.

BOOK iv.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 189

6. Lateranus,1 as you say, is the god and genius of hearths,
and received this name because men build that kind of fire-
place of unbaked bricks. What then? if hearths were made
of baked clay, or any other material whatever, will they have
no genii? and will Lateranus, whoever he is, abandon his
duty as guardian, because the kingdom which he possesses
lias not been formed of bricks of clay ? And for what pur-
pose,2 I ask, has that god received the charge of hearths ?
He runs about the kitchens of men, examining and discover-
ing with what kinds of wood the heat in their fires is pro-
duced ; he gives strength 3 to earthen vessels, that they may
not fly in pieces, overcome by the violence of the flames ;
he sees that the flavour of unspoilt dainties reaches the taste
of the palate with their own pleasantness, and acts the part
of a taster, and tries whether the sauces have been rightly
prepared. Is not this unseemly, nay — to speak with more
truth — disgraceful, impious, to introduce some pretended
deities for this only, not to do them reverence with fitting
honours, but to appoint them over base things, and disre-
putable actions ? 4

7. Does Venus Militaris, also, preside over the evil-doing 5
of camps, and the debaucheries of young men? Is there
one Perfica,6 also, of the crowd of deities, who causes those
base and filthy delights to reach their end with uninterrupted
pleasure? Is there also Pertunda, who presides over the
marriage7 couch? Is there also Tutunus, on whose huge
members 8 and horrent fascinus you think it auspicious, and
desire, that your matrons should be borne? But if facts

1 No mention is made of this deity by any other author.

2 Lit., " that he may do what."

3 Lit., " [good] condition," habitudinem.

4 Lit., " a disreputable act."

6 So the MS. reading Jlagitiis, followed by all edd. except LB. and
Orelli, who read plagiis — " kidnapping."

6 Of this goddess, also, no other author makes mention, but the germ
may be perhaps found in Lucretius (ii. 1116-7), where nature is termed
psrfica, i.e. "perfecting," or making all things complete.

7 i.e. in cubiculis prsesto est virginalem scrobem effodientibus marilis^

8 The first five edd. read Mutunus. Cf. ch. 11.

190 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK iv

themselves have very little effect in suggesting to you a right
understanding of the truth, are you not able, even from the
very names, to understand that these are the inventions of a
most meaningless superstition, and the false gods of fancy ? l
Puta, you say, presides over the pruning of trees, Peta over
prayers ; Nemestrinus 2 is the god of groves ; Patellana is a
deity, and Patella, of whom the one has been set over things
brought to light, the other over those yet to be disclosed.
Nodutis is spoken of as a god, because he 3 brings that which
has been sown to the knots ; and she who presides over the
treading out of grain, Noduterensis ; 4 the goddess Upibilia 5
delivers from straying from the [right] paths ; parents be-
reaved of their children are under the care of Orbona, — those
very near to death, under that of Naenia. Again,6 Ossilago
herself is mentioned [as she] who gives firmness and solidity
to the bones of young children. Mellonia is a goddess, strong
and powerful in regard to bees, caring for and guarding the
sweetness of their honey.

8. Say, I pray you (that Peta, Puta, Patella may gra-
ciously favour you), if there were no 7 bees at all on the earth
then, or if we men were born without bones, like some worms,
would there be no goddess Mellonia ;8 or would Ossilago, who
gives bones their solidity, be without a name of her own ?
I ask truly, and eagerly inquire whether you think that
gods, or men, or bees, fruits, twigs, and the rest, are the more

1 Lit., the "fancies" or " imaginations of false gods." Meursius pro-
posed to transpose the whole of this sentence to the end of the chapter,
which would give a more strictly logical arrangement ; but it must be
remembered that Arnobius allows himself much liberty in this respect.

2 Of these three deities no other mention is made.

3 The MS., LB., Hild., and Oehler read qui — " who brings ; " the other
edd., as above, quia.

4 So the MS. (cf. ch. 11), first five edd., Oberth., Hild., and Oehler ; the
other edd. read Nodutim Ter.

5 So the MS., both Roman edd., and Oehler; the other edd. reading
Vililia, except Hild., Viabilia.

6 The MS. reads nam — "for," followed by all edd. except Orelli, who
reads jam as above, and Oehler, who reads etiam — " also."

7 Orelli omits non, following Oberthiir.

8 Both in this and the preceding chapter the MS. reads Melonia.

BOOE iv.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 191

ancient in nature, time, long duration ? No man will doubt
that you say that the gods precede all things whatever by
countless ages and generations. But if it is so, how, in the
nature of things, can it be that, from things produced after-
wards, they received those names which are earlier in point
of time? or that the gods were charged with the care1 of
those things which were not yet produced, and assigned to
be of use to men? Or were the gods long without names;
and was it only after things began to spring up, and be on
the earth, that you thought it right that they should be called
by these names2 and titles? And whence could you have
known what name to give to each, since you were wholly
ignorant of their existence ; or that they possessed [any] fixed
powers, seeing that you were equally unaware which of them
had any power, and over what he should be placed to suit
his divine might?

9. What then ? you say ; do you declare that these gods
exist nowhere in the world, and have been created by unreal
fancies ? Not we alone, but truth itself, and reason, say so,
and that common-sense in which all men share. For who
is there who believes that there are gods of gain, and that
they preside over the getting of it, seeing that it springs very
often from the basest employments, and is always at the
expense of others ? Who believes that Libentina, who that
Burnus,3 is set over [those] lusts which wisdom bids us avoid,
and which, in a thousand ways, vile and filthy wretches4
attempt and practise? Who that Limentinus and Lima
have the care of thresholds, and do the duties of their keepers,
when every day we see [the thresholds] of temples and
private houses destroyed and overthrown, and that the in-

1 Lit., " obtained by lot the wardships."

2 Lit., " signs."

3 So the MS., both Koman edd., Hild., and Oehler; the others reading
Liburnum, except Elm., who reads -am, while Meursius conjectured
Liberum — " Bacchus."

4 Lit., "shameful impurity seeks after;" expetit read by Gelenius,
Canterus, and OberthUr, for the unintelligible MS. reading expeditur,
retained in both Komau edd. ; the others reading experltur — " tries."

192 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK iv.

famous approaches to stews are not without them ? Who
believes that the Limi l watch over obliquities ? who that
Saturnus presides over the sown crops? who that Mon-
tinus is the guardian of mountains ; Murcia,2 of the slothful ?
Who, finally, would believe that Money is a goddess, whom
your writings declare (as though [she were] the greatest
deity) to give golden rings,3 the front seats at games and
shows, honours in the greatest number, the dignity of the
magistracy, and that which the indolent love most of all, —
an undisturbed ease, by means of riches.

10. But if you urge that the bones, [different kinds of]
honey, thresholds, and all the other things which we have
either run over rapidly, or, to avoid prolixity, passed by alto-
gether, have4 their own peculiar guardians, we may in like
manner introduce a thousand other gods, who should care
for and guard innumerable things. For why should a god
have charge of honey only, and not of gourds, rape, cunila,
cress, figs, beets, cabbages ? Why should the bones alone
have found protection, and not the nails, hair, and all the
other things which are placed in the hidden parts and mem-
bers of which we feel ashamed, and are exposed to very many
accidents, and stand more in need of the care and attention
of the gods ? Or if you say that these parts, too, act under
the care of their own tutelar deities, there will begin to be as
many gods as there are things ; nor will the cause be stated
why the divine care does not protect all things, if you say
that there are certain things over which the deities preside,
and for which they care.

1 The MS. reads Lemons; Hild. and Oehler, Limones; the others, Limos,
as above.

2 The MS., LB., Hild., and Oehler read M urcidam ; the others, Murciam,
as above.

8 i.e. equestrian rank.

4 The MS. reading is quid si haberet in sedibus suos, retained by the first
five edd., with the change of -ret into -rent — " what if in their seats the
bones had their own peculiar guardians ; " Ursinus in the margin, fol-
lowed by Hild. and Oehler, reads in se divos suos — " if for themselves the
bones had gods as their own peculiar," etc. ; the other edd. reading, aa
above, si habere insistitis suos.

BOOK iv.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 193

11. What say you, O fathers of new religions, and
powers?1 Do you cry out, and complain that these gods
are dishonoured by us, and neglected with profane contempt,
viz., Lateranus, the genius of hearths; Limentinus, who
presides over thresholds ; Pertunda,2 Perfica, Noduterensis ? 3
and do you say that things have sunk into ruin, and that
the world itself has changed its laws and constitution, be-
cause we do not bow humbly in supplication to Mutunus4
and Tutunus? But now look and see, lest while you ima-
gine such monstrous things, and form such conceptions, you
may have offended the gods who most assuredly exist, if
only there are any who are worthy to bear and hold that
most exalted title ; and it be for no other reason that those
evils, of which you speak, rage, and increase by accessions
eveiy day.5 Why, then, some one of you will perhaps
say, do you maintain6 that it is not true that these gods
exist? And, when invoked by the diviners, do they obey the
call, and come when summoned by their own names, and
give answers which may be relied on, to those who consult
them ? We can show that what is said is false, either be-
cause in the whole matter there is the greatest room for
distrust, or because we, every day, see many of their pre-

1 i.e. deities. So LB. and Orelli, reading quid potestalum? — "what,
[0 fathers] of powers." The MS. gives qui — "what say you, 0 fathers
of new religions, who cry out, and complain that gods of powers are
indecently dishonoured by us, and neglected with impious contempt,"
etc. Heraldus emends thus: "... fathers of great religions and
powers? Do you, then, cry out," etc. "Fathers," i.e. those who dis-
covered, and introduced, unknown deities and forms of worship.

2 The MS. reads pertusqux- (marked as spurious) dam; and, according
to Hild., naeniam is written over the latter word.

3 So the MS. Cf. ch. 7.

4 The MS. is here very corrupt and imperfect, — supplices hoc est uno
procwribimus atque est utuno (Orelli omits ut-}, emended by Gelenius,
with most edd., supp. Mut-uno proc. atque Tutuno, as above ; Elm. and
LB. merely insert humi — " on the ground," after supp.

5 Meursius is of opinion that some words have slipped out of the text
here, and that some arguments had been introduced about augury and
divination.

6 Contendis, not found in the MS.

ARNOB. N

194 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boon iv.

dictions either prove untrue, or wrested with baffled expecta-
tion [to suit] the opposite issues.

12. But let them1 be true, as you maintain, yet will you
have us also believe2 that Mellonia, for example, introduces
herself into the entrails, or Limentinus, and that they set
themselves to make known3 what you seek to learn ? Did
you ever see their face, their deportment, their countenance I
or can even these be seen in lungs or livers? May it not
happen, may it not come to pass, although you craftily con-
ceal it, that the one should take the other's place, deluding,
mocking, deceiving, and presenting the appearance of the
[deity] invoked? If the magi, [who are] so much akin to4
soothsayers, relate that, in their incantations, pretended gods5
steal in frequently instead of those invoked ; that some of
these, moreover, are spirits of grosser substance,6 who pre-
tend that they are gods, and delude the ignorant by their
lies and deceit, — why7 should we not similarly believe that
here, too, others substitute themselves for those who are not,
that they may both strengthen your superstitious beliefs,
and rejoice that victims are slain in sacrifice to them under
names not their own ?

13. Or if you refuse to believe" this on account of its
novelty,8 how can you know whether there is not some one,
who comes in place of all whom you invoke, and substituting
himself in all parts of the world,9 shows to you what appear
to be10 many gods and powers? Who is that one? some one
will ask. We may perhaps, being instructed by truthful
authors, be able to say ; but, lest you should be unwilling to

1 i.e. the predictions.

8 Lit., " will you make the same belief."

8 Lit., "adapt themselves to the significations of the things which."

4 Lit., " brothers of." 5 i.e. demons.

6 Perhaps "abilities" — materiis.

7 The MS. reads cum — " with similar reason we may believe," instead
of cur, as above.

8 Lit., "novelty of the thing."

9 Lit., " of places and divisions," i.e. places separated from each
other.

10 Lit., " affords to you the appearance of."

BOOK iv.] ARNOB1US ADVERSUS GENTES. 195

believe us, let my opponent ask the Egyptians, Persians,
Indians, Chaldaeans, Armenians, and all the others who
have seen and become acquainted with these things in the
more recondite arts. Then, indeed, you will learn who is
the one god, or who the very many under him are, who
pretend to be gods, and make sport of men's ignorance.

Even now we are ashamed to come to the point at which
not only boys, young and pert, but grave men also, cannot
restrain their laughter, and [men who have been] hardened
into a strict and stern humour.1 For while we have all
heard it inculcated and taught by our teachers, that in de-
clining [the names] of the gods there was no plural number,
because the gods were individuals, and the ownership of
each name could not be common to a great many;2 you in
forgetfulness, and putting away the memory of your early
lessons, both give to several gods the same names, and,
although you are elsewhere more moderate as to their num-
ber, have multiplied them, again, by community of names ;
which subject, indeed, men of keen discernment and acute
intellect have before now treated both in Latin and Greek.3
And that might have lessened [our labour,4] if it were not
that at the same time we see that some know nothing of
these books; and, also, that the discussion which we have
begun, compels us to bring forward something on these
subjects, although [it has been already] laid hold of, and
related by those [writers].

14. Your theologians, then, and authors on unknown
antiquity, say that in the universe there are three Joves,
one of whom has ^Ether for his father ; another, Coelus ;

1 Lit., "a severity of stern manner" — moris for the MS. mares.
8 Orelli here introduces the sentence, " For it cannot be," etc., with
•which this book is concluded in the us. Cf. ch. 37, n.

3 There can be no doubt that Arnobius here refers to Clemens Alex-
andrinus (A&'yoj nporpivrmos irpo; 'EAAjjvaj), and Cicero (de Nat.
.Deor.), from whom he borrows most freely in the following chapters,
quoting them at times very closely. We shall not indicate particular
references without some special reason, as it must be understood these
references would be required with every statement.

4 Lit., " given to us an abridging," i.e. an opportunity of abridging.

196 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK iv

the third, Saturn, born and buried1 in the island of Crete.
[They speak of] five Suns and five Mercuries, — of whom, as
they relate, the first Sun is called the son of Jupiter, and is
regarded as grandson of JEther ; the second [is] also Jupiter's
son, and the mother who bore him Hyperiona;2 the third
the son of Vulcan, not [Vulcan] of Lemnos, but the son of
the Nile; the fourth, whom Acantho bore at Rhodes in the
heroic age, [was] the father of lalysus; [while] the fifth is
regarded as the son of a Scythian king and subtle Circe.
Again, the first Mercury, who is said to have lusted after
Proserpina,3 is son of Coelus, [who is] above all. Under the
earth is the second, who boasts that he is Trophonius. The
third [was] born of Mai a, his mother, and the third Jove;4
the fourth is the offspring of the Nile, whose name the
people of Egypt dread and fear to utter. The fifth is the
slayer of Argus, a fugitive and exile, and the inventor of
letters in Egypt. But there are five Minervas also, they
say, just as [there are five] Suns and Mercuries ; the first
of whom is no virgin, but the mother of Apollo by Vulcan ;
the second, the offspring of the Nile, who is asserted to be
the Egyptian Sais ; the third is descended from Saturn,
and is the one who devised the use of arms; the fourth
is sprung from Jove, and the Messenians name her Cory-

1 Lit., "committed to sepulture and born in," etc.

2 Arnobius repeats this statement in ch. xxii., or the name would have
been regarded as corrupt, no other author making mention of such a
goddess ; while Cicero speaks of one Sun as born of Hyperion. It
would appear, therefore, to be very probable that Arnobius, in writing
from memory or otherwise, has been here in some confusion as to what
Cicero did say, and thus wrote the name as we have it. It has also
been proposed to read "born of Regina" (or, with Gelenius, Khea),
"and his father Hyperion," because Cybele is termed /3«a/X£/«; for
which reading there seems no good reason. — Immediately below, lalysus
is made the son, instead of, as in Cicero, the grandson of the fourth ;
and again, Circe is said to be mother, while Cicero speaks of her as the
daughter of the fifth Sun. These variations, viewed along with the
general adherence to Cicero's statements (de N. D. iii. 21 sqq.), seem
to give good grounds for adopting the explanation given above

8 i.e. in Proserpinam genitalibus adhinnivisse subrectis.
4 Lit., " of Jupiter, but the third."

BOOK iv.] ARNOB1US AD VERSUS GENTES. 197

phasia; and the fifth is she who slew her lustful1 father,
Pallas.

15. And lest it should seem tedious and prolix to wish
to consider each person singly, the same theologians say
that there are four Vulcans and three Dianas, as many
JEsculapii and five Dionysi, six Hercules and four Venuses,
three sets of Castors and the same number of Muses, three
winged Cupids, and four named Apollo;2 whose fathers
they mention in like manner, in like manner their mothers,
[and] the places where they were born, and point out the
origin and family of each. But if it is true and certain,
and is told in earnest as a [well] known matter, either they
are not all gods, inasmuch as there cannot be several under
the same name, as we have been taught ; or if there is one
of them, he will not be known and recognised, because he
is obscured by the confusion of very similar names. And
thus it results from your own action, however unwilling you
may be that it should be so, that religion is brought into diffi-
culty and confusion, and has no fixed end to which it can turn
itself, without being made the sport of equivocal illusions.

16. For suppose that it had occurred to us, moved either
by suitable influence or violent fear of you,3 to worship
Minerva, for example, with the rites you deem sacred, and
the usual ceremony : if, when we prepare sacrifices, and
approach to make [the offerings] appointed for her on the
flaming altars, all the Minervas shall fly thither, and striv-
ing for the right to that name, each demand that the offer-
ings prepared be given to herself ; what drawn-out animal
shall we place among them, or to whom shall we direct the
sacred offices which are our duty ?4 For the first one of
whom we spoke will perhaps say, The name Minerva is mine,

1 i.e. incestorum appetitorem.

2 So Cicero (iii. 23) ; but Clemens (p. 24) speaks of five, and notes
that a sixth had been mentioned.

3 Lit., " by the violence of your terror." The preceding words are
read in the MS. ideo motos — " so moved by authority," and were emended
iclonea, as in the text, by Gelenius.

* Lit., " to what parts shall we transfer the duties of pious service."

198 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK iv.

mine 1 the divine majesty, who bore Apollo and Diana, and by
the fruit of my womb enriched heaven ivith deities, and mul-
tiplied the number of the gods. Nay, Minerva, the fifth will
say, are you speaking? who, being a wife, and so often a mother,
have lost the sanctity of spotless purity ? Do you not see that
in all temples 3 the images of Minervas are those of virgins,
and that all artists refrain from giving to them the figures
of matrons ? 4 Cease, therefore, to appropriate to yourself a
name not rightfully 5 yours. for that I am Minerva, be-
gotten of father Pallas, the whole band of poets bear witness,
who call me Pallas, the surname being derived from my
father. What say you, the second will cry on hearing this ;
do you, then, bear the name of Minerva, an impudent parri-
cide, and one defiled by the pollution of lewd lust, who, decking
yourself with rouge and a harlot's arts, roused upon yourself
even your father s passions, full of maddening desires ? Go
further, then, seek for yourself another name ; for this belongs
to me, whom the Nile, greatest of rivers, begot from among his
flowing waters, and brought to a maiden's state from the con-
densing of moisture.6 But if you inquire into the credibility
of the matter, 1 too will bring as witnesses the Egyptians,
in whose language I am called Neith, as Plato's Tima3us7

1 The MS. reads cum numen ; Rigaltius, followed by Oehler, emending,
as above, meum ; the first four edd., with Oberthiir, turn — " then the
deity [is mine] ;" while the rest read cum numine — " with the deity."

2 So LB., Orelli, and Oehler, reading tu tinnis for the MS. tutunis.

8 Capitoliis. In the Capitol were three shrines, — to Jove, Juno, and
Minerva ; and Roman colonies followed the mother-state's example.
Hence the present general application of the term, which is found else-
where in ecclesiastical Latin.

4 Lit., " Nor are the forms of married persons given to these by all
artists ;" nee read in all edd. for the MS. et — " and of married," etc.
which is opposed to the context.

5 Lit., "not of your own right."

6 Concretione roris — a strange phrase. Cf. Her. iv. 180 : " They say
that Minerva is the daughter of Poseidon and the Tritonian lake."

7 St. p. 21. The MS. reads quorum Nili lingua latonis; the two Roman
edd. merely insert p., Plat.; Gelenius and Canterus adding dicor — "in
whose language I am called the Nile's," Nili being changed into Neith
by Elmenhorst and later edd.

BOOK iv.j ARNOB1US AD VERSUS GENTES. 199

attests. What, then, do we suppose will be the result?
Will she indeed cease to say that she is Minerva, who is
named Coryphasia, either to mark her mother, or because she
sprung forth from the top of Jove's head, bearing a shield,
and girt with the terrors of arms ? Or [are we to suppose]
that she who is third will quietly surrender the name ? and
not argue l and resist the assumption of the first [two] with
such words as these, Do you thus dare to assume the honour
of my name, 0 /Saw,2 sprung from the mud and eddies of
a stream, and formed in miry places ? Or do you usurp 3
another's rank, who falsely say that you were born a goddess
from the head of Jupiter, and persuade very silly men that
you are reason ? Does he conceive and bring forth children
from his head ? That the arms you bear might be forged and
formed, icas there even in the liollow of his head a smitlis
workshop ? [were there] anvils, hammers, furnaces, belloius,
coals, and pincers? Or if, as you maintain, it is true that you
are reason, cease to claim for yourself the name which is mine ;
for reason, of which you speak, is not a certain form of deify,
but the understanding of difficult questions. If, then, as we
have said, five Minervas should meet us when we essay to
sacrifice,4 and contending as to whose this name is, each
demand that either fumigations of incense be offered to her,
or sacrificial wines poured out from golden cups; by what
arbiter, by what judge, shall we dispose of so great a dis-
pute ? or what examiner will there be, what umpire of so
great boldness as to attempt, with such personages, either
to give a just decision, or to declare their causes not founded
on right ? Will he not rather go home, and, keeping him-
self apart from such matters, think it safer to have nothing to
do with them, lest he should either make enemies of the rest,
by giving to one what belongs to all, or be charged with
folly for yielding5 to all what should be the property of one?

1 Lit., " take account of herself."

2 So Ursinus suggested in the margin for the MS. si verum.
5 The third Minerva now addresses the fourth.

4 Lit., "approaching the duties of religion."

* According to the MS. sic — "for so (i.e. as you do) yielding," etc.

200 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK iv.

17. "We may say the very same things of the Mercuries,
the Suns, — indeed of all the others whose numbers you in-
crease and multiply. But it is sufficient to know from one
case that the same principle applies to the rest ; and, lest
our prolixity should chance to weary our audience, we shall
cease to deal with individuals, lest, while we accuse you of
excess, we also should ourselves be exposed to the charge of
excessive loquacity. What do you say, you who, by [the
fear of] bodily tortures, urge us to worship the gods, and
constrain us to undertake the service of your deities ? We
can be easily won, if only something befitting the conception
of so great a race be shown to us. Show us Mercury, but
[only] one ; give us Bacchus, but [only] one ; one Venus,
and in like manner one Diana. For you will never make
us believe that there are four Apollos, or three Jupiters, not
even if you were to call Jove himself as witness, or make the
Pythian [god] your authority.

18. But some one on the opposite side says, How do we
know whether the theologians have written what is certain
and well known, or set forth a wanton fiction,1 as they thought
and judged? That has nothing to do with the matter; nor
does the reasonableness of your argument depend upon this,
— whether the facts are as the writings of the theologians
state, or are otherwise and markedly different. For to us it
is enough to speak of things which come before the public ;
and [we need] not inquire what is true, but [only] confute
and disprove that which lies open to all, and [which] men's
thoughts have generally received. But if they are liars,
declare yourselves what is the truth, and disclose the un-
assailable mystery. And how can it be done when the
services of men of letters are set aside ? For what is there
which can be said about the immortal gods that has not
reached men's thoughts from what has been written by men
on these subjects?2 Or can you relate anything yourselves

1 So all the edd., though Orelli approves of fictione (edd. -e?n), which
is, he says, the MS. reading, " set forth with wanton fiction."

2 The MS. and earlier edd., with Hild. and Oehler, read ex hominiun
de scriptis; LB. and Orelli inserting his after de, as above.

BOOK iv.] ARNOBIUS ADVEKSUS GENTES. 201

about their rites and ceremonies, which lias not been recorded
in books, and made known by what authors have written ?
Or if you think these of no importance, let all the books
be destroyed which have been composed about the gods for
you by theologians, pontiffs, [and] even some devoted to the
study of philosophy; nay, let us rather suppose that from
the foundation of the world no man ever wrote1 anything
about the gods: we wish to find out, and desire to know,
whether you can mutter or murmur in mentioning the gods,2
or conceive those in thought to whom no idea3 from any
book gave shape in your minds. But when it is clear that
you have been informed of their names and powers by the
suggestions of books,4 it is unjust to deny the reliableness of
these books by whose testimony and authority you establish
what you say.

19. But perhaps these things will turn out to be false,
and what you say to be true. By what proof, by what
evidence [will it be shown] ? For since both parties are
men, both those who have said the one thing and those who
have said the other, and on both sides the discussion was of
doubtful matters, it is arrogant to say that that is true which
seems so to you, but that that which offends your feelings
manifests wantonness and falsehood. By the laws of the
human race, and the associations of mortality itself, when
you read and hear, That god was born of this [father] and
of that mother, do you not feel in your mind5 that something
is said which belongs to man, and relates to the meanness of
our earthly race? Or, while you think that it is so,6 do
you conceive no anxiety lest you should in something offend
the gods themselves, whoever they are, because you believe
that it is owing to filthy intercourse . . . 7 that they have

1 The MS. and both Roman edd. read essc, which is clearly corrupt ;
for which LB. gives scripsisse (misprinted scripse), as above.

2 i.e. " speak of them at all." 8 Lit., " an idea of no writing."

4 Lit., " been informed by books suggesting to you," etc.

5 Lit., "does it not touch the feeling of your mind."

6 Ursinus would supply eos — "that they are so."

7 Atque ex seminis actu, orjactu, as the edd. except Hild. read it

202 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK iv.

reached the light they knew not of, thanks to lewdness?
For we, lest any one should chance to think that we are
ignorant of, do not know, what befits the majesty of that
name, assuredly1 think that the gods should not know birth ;
or if they are born at all, we hold and esteem that the Lord
and Prince of the universe, by ways which he knew himself,
sent them forth spotless, most pure, undefiled, ignorant of
sexual pollution,2 and brought to the full perfection of their
natures as soon as they were begotten.3

20. But you, on the contrary, forgetting how great4 their
dignity and grandeur are, associate with them a birth,6 and
impute [to them] a descent,5 which men of at all refined
feelings regard as at once execrable and terrible. From
Ops, you say, his mother, and from his father Saturn,
Diespiter was born with his brothers. Do the gods, then,
have wives ; and, the matches having been previously planned,
do they become subject to the bonds of marriage ? Do they
take upon themselves6 the engagements of the bridal couch
by prescription, by the cake of spelt, and by a pretended
sale?7 Have they their mistresses,8 their promised wives,
their betrothed brides, on settled conditions? And what
do we say about their marriages, too, when indeed you say
that some celebrated their nuptials, and entertained joyous
throngs, and that the goddesses sported at these ; and that
[some] threw all things into utter confusion with dissensions
because they had no share in [singing] the Fesceimine

1 The MS. reads dignitati-s out; corrected, as above, d. sane, in the first
five edd., Oberthur, and Orelli.

2 Quse sitfceditas ista coeundi.

s Lit., " as far as to themselves, their first generation being com-
pleted."

4 Lit., "forgetting the so great majesty and sublimity."

5 Both plural.

6 The MS., first four edd., and Oberthur read conducunt — "unite;"
for which the rest read condic-unt, as above.

7 i.e. WSM, farre, coemptione.

8 The word here translated mistresses, speratas, is used of maidens
loved, but not yet asked in marriage.

BOOK iv.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 203

verses, and occasioned danger and destruction1 to the next
generation of men?2

21. But perhaps this foul pollution may be less apparent
in the rest. Did, then, the ruler of the heavens, the father
of gods and men, who, by the motion of his eyebrow, and by
his nod, shakes the whole heavens and makes them tremble,
— did he find his origin in man and woman ? And unless
both sexes abandoned [themselves] to degrading pleasures
in sensual embraces,3 would there be no Jupiter, greatest of
all ; and even to this time would the divinities have no king,
and heaven stand without its lord 1 And why do we marvel
that you say Jove sprang from a woman's womb, seeing
that your authors relate that he both had a nurse, and in
the next place maintained the life given to him by nourish-
ment [drawn from] a foreign4 breast? What say you, O
men ? Did, then, shall I repeat, [the god] who makes the
thunder crash, lightens and hurls the thunderbolt, and
draws together terrible clouds, drink in the streams of the
breast, wail as an infant, creep about, and, that he might
[be persuaded to] cease his crying most foolishly protracted,
was he made silent by the noise of rattles,5 and put to
sleep lying in a very soft cradle, and lulled with broken
words? O devout assertion [of the existence] of gods,
pointing out and declaring the venerable majesty of their
awful grandeur ! Is it thus in your opinion, I ask, that the
exalted powers6 of heaven are produced? do your gods come
forth to the light by modes of birth such as these, by which
asses, pigs, dogs, by which the whole of this unclean herd7
of earthly beasts is conceived and begotten ?

22. And, not content to have ascribed these carnal unions
to the venerable Saturn,8 you affirm that the king of the

1 Lit., "dangers of destructions."

2 Instead of " occasioned," sevisse, which the later editions give, the
MS. and first four edd. read ssevisse — " that danger and destruction raged
against," etc.

8 Copulatis corporibus.

4 i.e. not his mother's, but the dug of the goat Amalthea.

5 Lit., " rattles heard." 6 Lit., "the eminence of the powers."
T Lit., " inundation." 8 Lit, " Saturnian gravity."

204 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOR iv.

world himself begot children even more shamefully than he
was himself born and begotten. Of Hyperions,1 as his
mother, you say, and Jupiter, who wields the thunderbolt,
was born the golden and blazing Sun ; of Latona and the
same, the Delian archer, and Diana,2 who rouses the woods ;
of Leda and the same,3 those named in Greek Dioscori; of
Alcmena and the same, the Theban Hercules, whom his club
and hide defended ; of him and Semele, Liber, who is named
Bromius, and was born a second time from his father's thigh ;
of him, again, and Maia, Mercury, eloquent in speech, and
bearer of the harmless snakes. Can any greater insult be
put upon your Jupiter, or is there anything else which will
destroy and ruin the reputation of the chief of the gods,
further than that you believe him to have been at times
overcome by vicious pleasures, and to have glowed with the
passion of a heart roused to lust after women ? And what
had the Saturnian king to do with strange nuptials? Did
Juno not suffice him ; and could he not stay the force of his
desires on the queen of the deities, although so great excel-
lence graced her, [such] beauty, majesty of countenance,
and snowy and marble whiteness of arms? Or did he, not
content with one wife, taking pleasure in concubines, mis-
tresses, and courtezans, a lustful god, show 4 his incontinence
in all directions, as is the custom with dissolute5 youths; and
in old age, after intercourse with numberless persons, did

1 Cf. ch. 14, note 2.

2 It is worth while to compare this passage with ch. 16. Here Arno-
bius makes Latona the mother of Apollo and Diana, in accordance with
the common legend ; but there he represents the first Minerva as claim-
ing them as her children.

3 In the MS. there is here an evident blunder on the part of the copyist,
who has inserted the preceding line ("the archer Apollo, and of the
Avoods") after "the same." Omitting these words, the MS. reading is lite-
rally, " the name in Greek is to the Dioscori." Before " the name " some
word is pretty generally supposed to have been lost, some conjecturing
"to whom;" others (among them Orelli, following Salmasius) "Gas-
tores." But it is evidently not really necessary to supplement the text.

4 Lit., " scatter."

5 Orelli reads, with the MS., LB., and Hild., babecali, which he inter-
prets belli, i.e. "handsome."

BOOK iv. J ARNOBIUS ADVEESUS GENTES. 205

he renew his eagerness for pleasures [now] losing their zest ?
What say you, profane ones ; or what vile thoughts do you
fashion about your Jove ? Do you not, then, observe, do you
not see with what disgrace you brand him ? of what wrong-
doing you make him the author ? or what stains of vice,
how great infamy you heap upon him?

23. Men, though prone to lust, and inclined, through weak-
ness of character, to [yield to] the allurements of sensual
pleasures, still punish adultery by the laws, and visit with
the penalty of death those whom they find to have possessed
themselves of others' rights by forcing the marriage-bed.
The greatest of kings, [however, you tell us,] did not know
how vile, how infamous the person of the seducer and adul-
terer was ; and he who, as is said, examines our merits and
demerits, did not, owing to the reasonings of his abandoned
heart, see what was the fitting course [for him] to resolve on.
But this misconduct might perhaps be endured, if you were
to conjoin him with persons at least his equals, and [if] he
were made by you the paramour of the immortal goddesses.
But what beauty, what grace was there, I ask you, in human
bodies, which could move, which could turn to it x the eyes of
Jupiter? Skin, entrails, phlegm, and all that filthy mass
placed under the coverings of the intestines, which not Lyn-
ceus only with his searching gaze can shudder at, but any
other also can [be made to] turn from even by merely think-
ing. O wonderful reward of guilt, O fitting and precious
joy, for which Jupiter, the greatest, should become a swan,
and a bull, and beget white eggs !

24. If you will open your minds' eyes, and see the real2
truth without gratifying any private end, you will find that
the causes of all the miseries by which, as you say, the human
race has long been afflicted, flow from such beliefs which
you held in former times about your gods ; and which you
have refused to amend, although the truth was placed before
your eyes. For what about them, pray, have we indeed

1 MS. and first five edd. read inde—" thence ;" the others in se, as above.

2 Orelli, without receiving into the text, approves of the reading of
Stewechius. promptam, "evident," for the MS. propriam.

206 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK iv.

ever either imagined which was unbecoming, or put forth in
shameful writings that the troubles which assail men and
the loss of the blessings of life 1 should be used to excite a
prejudice against us? Do we say that certain gods were
produced from eggs,2 like storks and pigeons ? [Do we say]
that the radiant Cytherean Venus grew up, having taken
form from the sea's foam and the severed genitals of Coelus?
that Saturn was thrown into chains for parricide, and re-
lieved from their weight only on his own days ?3 that Jupiter
was saved from death4 by the services of the Curetes? that
he drove his father from the seat of power, and by force
and fraud possessed a sovereignty not his own ? Do we say
that his aged sire, when driven out, concealed himself in the
territories of the Itali, and gave his name as a gift to Latium,5
because he had been [there] protected from his son ? Do
we say that Jupiter himself incestuously married his sister ?
or, instead of pork, breakfasted in ignorance upon the son of
Lycaon, when invited to his table ? that Vulcan, limping on
one foot, wrought as a smith in the island of Lemnos ? that
JEsculapius was transfixed by a thunderbolt because of his
greed and avarice, as the Boeotian Pindar 6 sings ? that
Apollo, having become rich, by his ambiguous responses,
deceived the very kings by whose treasures and gifts he had
been enriched? Did we declare that Mercury was a thief?
that Laverna is [so] also, and along with him presides over
secret frauds ? Is the writer Myrtilus one of us, who de-
clares that the Muses were the handmaids of Megalcon,7
daughter of Macarus ? 8

1 Lit., " the benefits diminished by which it is lived."

2 The MS. reads ex Jovis; the first five edd. Jove — " from Jove," which
is altogether out of place ; the others, as above, ex ovis. Cf. i. 36.

3 The MS. reads et ablui diebus tantis . . . elevari; LB., Hild., and Oehler,
status or statutis . . . et levari — "and was loosed and released on fixed
days ; " Elm., Oberthiir, and Orelli receive the conjecture of Ursinus, et
suis diebus tantum . . . rel., as above.

4 Cf. iii. 41.

5 i.e. hiding-place. Virg. JEn. viii. 322 : Quoniam latuisset tutus in oris.

6 Pyth. iii. 102 sq. 7 MS. Meglac.

* The MS. and most edd. give jilias, making the Muses daughters of

BOOK iv.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 207

25. Did we say l that Venus was a courtezan, deified by a
Cyprian king named Cinyras ? Who reported that the
palladium was formed from the remains of Pelops? Was
it not you? Who that Mars was Spartanus? was it not
your writer Epicharmus? Who that he was born within
the confines of Thrace? was it not Sophocles the Athenian,
with the assent of all his spectators ? Who [that he was
born] in Arcadia ? was it not you ? Who that he was kept
a prisoner for thirteen months?2 was it not the son of the
river Meles ? Who [said] that dogs were sacrificed to him
by the Carians, asses by the Scythians ? was it not Apollo-
dorus especially, along with the rest ? Who that in wronging
another's marriage couch, he was caught entangled in snares ?
was it not your writings, your tragedies ? Did we ever write
that the gods for hire endured slavery, as Hercules at Sardis3
for lust and wantonness ; as the Delian Apollo, [who served]
Admetus, as Jove's brother, [who served] the Trojan Lao-
medon, whom the Pythian also [served], but with his uncle ;
as Minerva, who gives light, and trims the lamps to secret
lovers ? Is not he one of your poets, who represented Mars
and Venus as wounded by men's hands ? Is not Panyassis

Macarus; but Orelli, Hild., and Oehler adopt, as above, the reading of
Canterus, filise, in accordance with Clem. Alex.

1 So the MS. reading numquid dictatum, which would refer this sen-
tence to the end of the last chapter. Gelenius, with Canth., Oberth.,
and Orelli, reads quis ditatam, and joins with the following sentence
thus: "Who related that Venus, a courtezan enriched by C., was
deified . . . ? who that the palladium," etc. Cf. v. 19.

2 The MS. reads quis mensibus in Arcadia tribus et decem vinctum —
"Who that he was bound thirteen months in Arcadia? was it not the
son," etc. To which there are these two objections, — that Homer never
says so ; and that Clemens Alexandrinus (Protrept. p. 25), from whom
Arnobius here seems to draw, speaks of Homer as saying only that Mars
was so bound, without referring to Arcadia. The MS. reading may have
arisen from carelessness on the part of Arnobius in quoting (cf. ch. 14,
n. 2), or may be a corruption of the copyists. The reading translated
is an emendation by Jortin, adopted by Orelli.

3 Sardibus, — a conjecture of Ursinus, adopted by LB., Hild., and
Oehler for the MS. sordibus; for which the others read sordidi—" for the
sake of base lust."

208 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK iv.

one of you, who relates that father Dis and queenly Juno
were wounded by Hercules ? Do not the writings of your
Polemo say that Pallas l was slain,2 covered with her own
blood, overwhelmed by Ornytus ? Does not Sosibius declare
that Hercules himself was afflicted by the wound and pain
he suffered at the hands of Hipocoon's children ? Is it re-
lated at our instance that Jupiter was committed to the grave
in the island of Crete ? Do we say that the brothers,3 who
were united in their cradle, were buried in the territories
of Sparta and Lacedgsmon ? Is the author of our number,
who is termed Patrocles the Thurian in the titles of his
writings, who relates that the tomb and remains of Saturn
are found4 in Sicily? Is Plutarch of Cliaeronea5 esteemed
one of us, who said that Hercules was reduced to ashes on
the top of Mount CEta, after his loss of strength through
epilepsy ?

26. But what shall I say of the desires with which it is
written in your books, and contained in your writers, that
the holy immortals lusted after women? For is it by us
that the king of the sea is asserted in the heat of maddened
passion to have robbed of their virgin purity Amphitrite,*
Hippothoe, Amymone, Menalippe, Alope?7 that the spotless
Apollo, Latona's son, most chaste and pure, with the passions
of a breast not governed by reason, desired Arsinoe, ^Ethusa,
Hypsipyle, Marpessa, Zeuxippe, and Prothoe, Daphne, and
Sterope?6 Is it shown in our poems that the aged Saturn,
already long covered with grey hair, and now cooled by
weight of years, being taken by his wife in adultery, put on
the form of one of the lower animals, and neighing [loudly],
escaped in the shape of a beast ? Do you not accuse Jupiter

1 Lit, " the masculine one."

2 As this seems rather extravagant when said of one of the immortals,
Isesam, " hurt," has been proposed by Meumus.

3 Castor and Pollux. 4 Lit., "contained."

6 The MS. reads Hieronymus PL—11 is Hier., is PI.," while Clem. Alex,
mentions only "Hieronymus the philosopher."

6 These names are all in the plural in the original.

7 So LB. and Orelli, reading Alopas, from Clem. Alex., for the MS.
Alcyonas.

BOOK iv.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 209

himself of having assumed countless forms, and concealed
by mean deceptions the ardour of his wanton lust? Have
we ever written that he obtained his desires by deceit, at one
time changing into gold, at another into a sportive satyr;
into a serpent, a bird, a bull ; and, to pass beyond all limits
of disgrace, into a little ant, that he might, forsooth, make
Clitor's daughter the mother of Myrmidon, in Thessaly?
Who represented him as having watched over Alcmena for
nine nights without ceasing? was it not you? — that he indo-
lently abandoned himself to his lusts, forsaking his post in
heaven? was it not you? And, indeed, you ascribe1 [to
him] no mean favours; since, in your opinion, the god
Hercules was born to exceed and surpass in such matters
his father's powers. He in nine nights begot2 with diffi-
culty one son ; but Hercules, a holy god, in one night taught
the fifty daughters of Thestius at once to lay aside their
virginal title, and to bear a mother's burden. Moreover,
not content to have ascribed to the gods love of women, do
you also say that they lusted after men ? Some one loves
Hylas ; another is engaged with Hyacinthus ; that one burns
with desire for Pelops; this one sighs more ardently for
Chrysippus ; Catamitus is carried off to be a favourite and
cup-bearer; and Fabius, that he may be called Jove's darling,
is branded on the soft parts, and marked in the hinder.

27. But among you, is it only the males who love; and
has the female sex preserved its purity?3 Is it not proved
in your books that Tithonus was loved by Aurora; that
Luna lusted after Endymion ; the Nereid after JEacus ;
Thetis after Achilles' father ; Proserpina after Adonis ; her
mother, Ceres, after some rustic Jasion, and afterwards
Vulcan, Phaeton,4 Mars; Venus herself, the mother of ^Eneas,
and founder of the Roman power, to marry Anchises 1

1 Lit., " you add."

2 In the original, somewhat at large — unam potuit prolem extundere,
concinnare, compingere.

3 All edd. read this without mark of interrogation.

4 The MS. reads Phxtontem : for which, both here and in Clem., Potter
proposed Phaoiicm, because no such amour is mentioned elsewhere.

AIINOU. O

210 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK iv.

While, therefore, you accuse, without making [any] excep-
tion, not one only by name, but the whole of the gods alike,
in whose existence you believe, of such acts of extraordinary
shamefulness and baseness, do you dare, without violation of
modesty, to say either that we are impious, or that you are
pious, although they receive from you much greater occasion
for offence on account of all the shameful acts which you
heap up to their reproach, than in connection with the
service and duties required by their majesty, honour, and
worship? For either all these things are false which you
bring forward about them individually, lessening their credit
and reputation ; and it is [in that case] a matter quite de-
serving, that the gods should utterly destroy the race of men ;
or if they are true and certain, and perceived without any
reasons for doubt, it comes to this issue, that, however un-
willing you may be, we believe them to be not of heavenly,
but of earthly birth.

28. For where there are weddings, marriages, births,
nurses, arts,1 and weaknesses ; where there is liberty and
slavery; where there are wounds, slaughter, and [shedding
of] blood ; where there are lusts, desires, sensual pleasures ;
where there is every mental passion arising from disgusting
emotions, — there must of necessity be nothing godlike there ;
nor can that cleave to a superior nature which belongs to
a fleeting race, and to the frailty of earth. For who, if only
he recognises and perceives what the nature of that power is,
can believe either that a deity had the generative members,
and was deprived of them by a very base operation ; or that
he at one time cut off the children sprung from himself, and
was punished by suffering imprisonment ; or that he, in a
way, made civil war upon his father, and deprived him of
the right of governing ; or that he, filled with fear of one
younger when overcome, turned to flight, and hid in remote
solitudes, like a fugitive and exile ? Who, I say, can believe

1 i.e. either the arts which belong to each god (cf. the words in
ii. 18: "these [arts] are not the gifts of science, but the discoveries of
necessity "), or, referring to the words immediately preceding, obstetric
arts.

BOOK i v. J A RNOB1 US AD VERS US GENTES. 2 1 1

that the deity reclined at men's tables, was troubled on
account of his avarice, deceived his suppliants by an ambigu-
ous reply, excelled in the tricks of thieves, committed adultery,
acted as a slave, was wounded, and in love, and submitted
to the seduction of impure desires in all the forms of lust ?
But yet you declare all these things both were, and are, in
your gods ; and you pass by no form of vice, wickedness,
error, without bringing it forward, in the wantonness of
your fancies, to the reproach of the gods. You must,
therefore, either seek out other gods, to whom all these
[reproaches] shall not apply, for they are a human and
earthly race to whom they apply; or if there are only
these whose names and character you have declared, by
your beliefs you do away with them : for all the things of
which you speak relate to men.

29. And here, indeed, we can show that all those whom
you represent to us as and call gods, were [but] men, by
quoting either Euhemerus of Acragas,1 whose books were
translated by Ennius into Latin that all might be thoroughly
acquainted [with them] ; or Nicanor 2 the Cyprian ; or the
Pellaean Leon ; or Theodoras of Gyrene ; or Hippo and
Diagoras of Melos ; or a thousand other writers, who have
minutely, industriously, and carefully 3 brought secret things
to light with noble candour. We may, I repeat, at pleasure,
declare both the acts of Jupiter, and the wars of Minerva
and the virgin4 Diana; by what stratagems Liber strove to
make himself master of the Indian empire; what was the condi-
tion, the duty, the gain5 of Venus ; to whom the great mother
was bound in marriage ; what hope, what joy was aroused in
her by the comely Attis ; whence [came] the Egyptian Serapis
and Isis, or for what reasons their very names6 were formed.

1 Lit., " Euhemerus being opened."

2 So Elm. and Orelli, reading Nicanore for the MS. Nicayora, retained
by all other edd.

3 Lit., " with the care of scrupulous diligence."

4 Meursius would join virginis to Minerva, thinking it an allusion to
her title TLotpdivo;.

5 These terms are employed of hetjcrrc.

6 Lit., " the title itself of their names was."

212 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK iv.

30. But in the discussion which we at present maintain,
we do not undertake this trouble or service, to show and de-
clare who all these were. [But] this is what we proposed to
ourselves, that as you call us impious and irreligious, [and,]
on the other hand, maintain that you are pious and serve the
gods, we should prove and make manifest that by no men
are they treated with less respect than by you. But if it is
proved by the very insults that it is so, it must, as a conse-
quence, be understood that it is you who rouse the gods to
fierce and terrible rage, because you either listen to or believe,
or yourselves invent about them, stories so degrading. For
it is not he who is anxiously thinking of religious rites,1 and
slays spotless victims, who gives piles of incense to be burned
•with fire, not he must be thought to worship the deities, or
alone discharge the duties of religion. True worship is in
the heart, and a belief worthy of the gods ; nor does it at
all avail to bring blood and gore, if you believe about them
things which are not only far remote from and unlike their
nature, but even to some extent stain and disgrace both
their dignity and virtue.

31. We wish, then, to question you, and invite you to
answer a short question, Whether you think it a greater offence
to sacrifice to them no victims, because you think that so
great a being neither wishes nor desires these ; or, with foul
beliefs, to hold opinions about them so degrading, that they
might rouse any one's spirit to a mad desire for revenge ?
If the relative importance of the matters be weighed, you
will find no judge so prejudiced as not to believe it a greater
crime to defame by manifest insults any one's reputation,
than to treat it with silent neglect. For this, perhaps, may
be held and believed from deference to reason ; [but] the
other course manifests an impious spirit, and a blindness
despaired of in fiction. If in your ceremonies and rites
neglected sacrifices and expiatory offerings may be demanded,
guilt is said to have been contracted ; if by a momentary

1 Qui sollicite rcleyit. Releyit is here used by Arnobius to denote the
root of religio, and has therefore some such meaning as that given above.
Cf. Cicero, de Nat. Deorum, ii. 28

BOOK iv.] A UN OBI US AD VERS US GENTES. 2 1 3

forgetfulness l any one has erred either in speaking or in
pouring wine ; 2 or again,3 if at the solemn games and sacred
races the dancer has halted, or the musician suddenly become
silent, — you all cry out immediately that something has been
done contrary to the sacredness of the ceremonies ; or if the
boy termed patrimus let go the thong in ignorance,4 or could
not hold [to] the earth : 5 and [yet] do you dare to deny that
the gods are ever being wronged by you in sins so grievous,
while you confess yourselves that, in less matters, they are
often angry, to the national ruin I

32. But all these things, they say, are the fictions of poets,
and games arranged for pleasure. It is not credible, indeed,
that men by no means thoughtless, who sought to trace out
the character of the remotest antiquity, either did not 6 insert
in their poems the fables which survived in men's minds7
and common conversation ; 8 or that they would have assumed
to themselves so great licence as to foolishly feign what was
almost sheer madness, and might give them reason to be
afraid of the gods, and bring them into danger with men.
But let us grant that the poets are, as you say, the inventors
and authors of tales so disgraceful ; you are not, however,
even thus free from the guilt of dishonouring the gods, who
either are remiss in punishing such offences, or have not, by
passing laws, and by severity of punishments, opposed such

1 Lit., "an error of inadvertence."

2 Lit., " with the sacrificial bowl."

3 So the MS., both Roman edd., Elm., Hild., and Oehler, reading rnr-
sus; the others in cursu — " in the course."

4 Patrimus, i.e. one whose father is alive, is probably used loosely for
patrimus et matrimus, to denote one both of whose parents were alive,
who was therefore eligible for certain religious services.

5 So the MS. reading terrain tenere, for which Hild. would read ten-
sam, denoting the car on which were borne the images of the gods, the
thongs or reins of which were held by the patrimus et matrimus; Lipsius,
siserram, the sacrificial victim. The reading of the text has been ex-
plained as meaning to touch the ground with one's hands ; but the general
meaning is clear enough, — that it was unlucky if the boy made a slip,
cither with hands or feet.

6 Oberthur and Orelli omit non. T Lit., "notions."
8 Lit., "placed in their ears."

214 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK iv.

indiscretion, and determined1 that no man should henceforth
say that which tended to the dishonour,2 or was unworthy of
the glory of the gods.3 For whoever allows the wrongdoer
to sin, strengthens his audacity ; and it is more insulting to
brand and mark any one with false accusations, than to bring
forward and upbraid their real offences. For to be called
what you are, and what you feel yourself to be, is less offen-
sive, because [your resentment] is checked by the evidence
supplied against you on privately reviewing your life ; 4 but
that wounds very keenly which brands the innocent, and
defames a man's honourable name and reputation.

33. Your gods, it is recorded, dine on celestial couches,
and in golden chambers, drink, and are at last soothed by
the music of the lyre, and singing. You fit them with ears
not easily wearied ;5 and do not think it unseemly to assign
to the gods the pleasures by which earthly bodies are sup-
ported, and which are sought after by ears enervated by the
frivolity of an unmanly spirit. Some of them are brought
forward in the character of lovers, destroyers of purity, to
commit shameful and degrading deeds not only with women,
but with men also. You take no care as to what is said
about matters of so much importance, nor do you check,
by any fear of chastisement at least, the recklessness of your
wanton literature ; others, through madness and frenzy, be-
reave themselves, and by the slaughter of their own relatives
cover themselves with blood, just as though it were that of
an enemy. You wonder at these loftily expressed impieties ;
and that which it was fitting should be subjected to all pun-
ishments, you extol with praise that spurs them on, so as to
rouse their recklessness to greater vehemence. They mourn
over the wounds of their bereavement, and with unseemly

1 Lit., " and it has [not] been established by you,"— a very abrupt
transition in the structure of the sentence.

2 Lit., " which was very near to disgrace."

3 So the margin of Ursinus, followed by later edd., prefixing d before
the MS. -eorum.

4 Lit., " has less bite, being weakened by the testimony of silent re-
viewing," recognitionis.

5 Lit., " most enduring."

BOOK iv.] AENOBWS ADVEESUS GENTES. 215

waitings accuse the cruel fates; you are astonished at the
force of their eloquence, carefully study [and] commit to
memory that which should have been wholly put away from
human society,1 and are solicitous that it should not perish
through any forgetfulness. They are spoken of as being
wounded, maltreated, making war upon each other with hot
and furious contests; you enjoy the description; and, to
enable you to defend so great daring in the writers, pretend
that these things are allegories, and contain the principles of
natural science.

34. But why do I complain that you have disregarded the
insults2 offered to the other deities? That very Jupiter,
whose name you should not have spoken without fear and
trembling over your whole body, is described as confess-
ing his faults when overcome by love3 of his wife, and,
hardened in shamelessness, making known, as if he were
mad and ignorant,4 the mistresses he preferred to his spouse,
the concubines he preferred to his wife ; you say that those
who have uttered so marvellous things, are chiefs and kings
among poets endowed with godlike genius, that they are
persons most holy ; and so utterly have you lost sight of your
duty in the matters of religion which you bring forward,
that words are of more importance, in your opinion, than
the profaned majesty of the immortals. So then, if only
you felt any fear of the gods, or believed with confident and
unhesitating assurance that they existed at all, should you
not, by bills, by popular votes, by fear of the senate's decrees,
have hindered, prevented, [and] forbidden any one to speak
at random of the gods otherwise than in a pious manner ? 5
Nor have they obtained this honour even at your hands, that
you should repel insults offered to them by the same laws by

1 Coetu. The MS. and most edd. read coalitu, — a word not occurring
elsewhere ; which Gesner would explain, " put away that it may not
be established among men," the sense being the same in either case.

2 Lit., " complain of the neglected insults of the other gods."

3 Lit., u as a lover by." Cf. Homer, II 14, 312.

4 i.e. of himself.

6 Lit.. " exceot that which was full of religion."

216 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK iv.

which you ward them off from yourselves. They are ac-
cused of treason among you who have whispered anv evil
about your kings. To degrade a magistrate, or use insulting
language to a senator, you have made by decree [a crime],
followed by the severest punishment. To write a satirical
poem, by which a slur is cast upon the reputation and
character of another, you determined, by the decrees of the
decemvirs, should not go unpunished ; and that no one
might assail your ears with too wanton abuse, you estab-
lished formulae1 for severe affronts. With you only the
gods are unhonoured, contemptible, vile ; against whom you
allow any one liberty to say what he will, to accuse them
of the deeds of baseness which his lust has invented and
devised. And [yet] you do not blush to raise against us the
charge of want of regard for deities so infamous, although
it is much better to disbelieve the existence of the gods than
to think that they are such, and of such repute.

35. But is it only poets whom you have thought proper2
to allow to invent unseemly tales about the gods, and to turn
them shamefully into sport? What do your pantomimists,
the actors, that crowd of mimics and adulterers?3 Do they4
not abuse your gods to make to themselves gain, and [do not
the others]5 find enticing pleasures in6 the wrongs and insults
offered to the gods ? At the public games, too, the colleges
of all the priests and magistrates take their places, the chief
Pontiffs, and the chief priests of the curias ; the Quindecem-
viri take their places, [crowned] with wreaths of laurel, and
the flamines diales with their mitres ; the augurs take their
places, who disclose the divine mind and will ; and the chaste
maidens also, who cherish and guard the ever burning
fire ; the whole people and the senate take their places ; the

1 i.e. according to which such offences should be punished.

2 Lit., " have willed."

8 Lit., " full-grown race," exoleti, a word frequently used, as here,
gensu obscceno.

4 i.e. the actors, etc.

6 i.e. the crowd of adulterers, as Orelli suggests.

6 Lit., " draw enticements of pleasures from."

BOOK iv.] ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 217

fathers who have done service as consuls, princes next to the
gods, and most worthy of reverence ; and, shameful to say,
Venus, the mother of the race of Mars, and parent of the
imperial people, is represented by gestures as in love,1 and is
delineated with shameless mimicry as raving like a Bacchanal,
with all the passions of a vile harlot.2 The Great Mother,
too, adorned with her sacred fillets, is represented by dancing ;
and that Pessinuntic Dindymene3 is, to the dishonour of her
age, represented as with shameful desire using passionate
gestures in the embrace of a herdsman ; and also in the
Trachinise of Sophocles,4 that son of Jupiter, Hercules, en-
tangled in the toils of a death-fraught garment, is exhibited
uttering piteous cries, overcome by his violent suffering, and
at last wasting away and being consumed, as his intestines
soften and are dissolved.5 But in [these] tales even the
Supreme Ruler of the heavens himself is brought forward,
without any reverence for his name and majesty, as acting
the part of an adulterer, and changing his countenance for
purposes of seduction, in order that he might by guile rob
of their chastity matrons, who were the wives of others,
and putting on the appearance of their husbands, by assum-
ing the form of another.

36. But this crime is not enough : the persons of the most
sacred gods are mixed up with farces also, and scurrilous plays.
And that the idle onlookers may be excited to laughter and
jollity, the deities are hit at in jocular quips, the spectators
shout and rise up, the whole pit resounds with the clapping
of hands and applause. And to the debauched scoffers6 at
the gods gifts and presents are ordained, ease, freedom from
public burdens, exemption and relief, together with triumphal

1 Or, " Venus, the mother . . . and loving parent," etc.

2 Lit., " of meretricious vileness."

3 i.e. Cybele, to whom Mount Dindymus in Mysia \vas sacred, whose
rites, however, were celebrated at Pessinus also, a very ancient city of
Galatia.

4 MS. Sofocks, corrected in LB. Sophocles. Cf. Trach. 1022 sqq.

5 Lit., "towards (in) the last [of the] wasting consumed by the
softening of his bowels flowing apart."

6 Lit., " debauched and scoffers."

218 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK iv.

garlands, — a crime for which no amends can be made by any
apologies. And after this do you dare to wonder whence these
ills come with which the human race is deluged and over-
whelmed without any interval, while you daily both repeat
and learn by heart all these things, with which are mixed up
libels upon the gods and slanderous sayings; and when1
you wish your inactive minds to be occupied with useless
dreamings, demand that da}'S be given to you, and exhibition
made without any interval"? But if you felt any real indig-
nation on behalf of your religious beliefs, you should rather
long ago have burned these writings, destroyed those books
of yours, and overthrown these theatres, in which evil reports
of your deities are daily made public in shameful tales.
For why, indeed, have our writings deserved to be given to
the flames'? our meetings to be cruelly broken up,2 in which
prayer is made to the Supreme God, peace and pardon are
asked for all in authority, for soldiers, kings, friends, enemies,
for those still in life, and those freed from the bondage of
the flesh ;3 in which all that is said is such as to make [men]
humane,4 gentle, modest, virtuous, chaste, generous in dealing

1 So Orelli, reading et quando; MS. and -other edd. et si — "and if
ever."

2 Arnobius is generally thought to refer here to the persecution under
Diocletian mentioned by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. viii. 2.

3 The service in which these prayers were offered was presided over
by the bishop, to whom the dead body was brought : hymns were then
sung of thanksgiving to God, the giver of victory, by whose help and
grace the departed brother had been victorious. The priest next gave
thanks to God, and some chapters of the Scriptures were read ; after-
wards the catechumens were dismissed ; the names of those at rest were
then read in a clear voice, to remind the survivors of the success with
which others had combated the temptations of the world. The priest
again prayed for the departed, at the close beseeching God to grant
him pardon, and admission among the undying. Thereafter the body
was kissed, anointed, and buried. — (Dionysius, Eccl. Piter., last chapter
quoted by Heraldus. Cf. Const. Apost. viii. 41.) With the church's
advance in power there was an accession of pomp to these rites.

4 Cf. the younger Pliny, Epist. x. 97 : " They affirmed that they
bound themselves by oath not for any wicked purpose, but to pledge
themselves not to commit theft, robbery, or adultery, nor break faith,
or prove false to a trust."

BOOK iv.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 219

with their substance, and inseparably united to all embraced
in our brotherhood ? l

37. But this is the state of the case, that as you are ex-
ceedingly strong in war and in military power, you think you
excel in knowledge of the truth also, and are pious before
the gods,2 whose might you have been the first to besmirch
with foul imaginings. Here, if your fierceness allows, and
madness suffers, we ask you to answer us this : Whether you
tjiink that anger finds a place in the divine nature, or that
the divine blessedness is far removed from such passions ?
For if they are subject to passions so furious,3 and are excited
by feelings of rage as your imaginings suggest (for you say
that they have often shaken the earth with their roaring,4
and bringing woful misery on men, corrupted with pestilen-
tial contagion the character of the times,5 both because their
games had been celebrated with too little care, and because
their priests were not received with favour, and because some
small spaces were desecrated, and because their rites were
not duly performed), it must consequently be understood
that they feel no little wrath on account of the opinions
which have been mentioned. But if, as follows of necessity,
it is admitted that all these miseries with which men have
long been overwhelmed flow from such fictions, if the anger
of the deities is excited by these causes, you are the occasion
of so terrible misfortunes, because you never cease to jar
upon the feelings of the gods, and excite them to a fierce
desire for vengeance. But if, on the other hand, the gods
are not subject to such passions, and do not know at all
what it is to be enraged, then indeed there is no ground for
saying that they who know not what anger is are angry
with us, and they are free from its presence? and the dis-

1 Lit., " whom [our] society joins together," quos solidet germanitas.

2 i.e. in their sight or estimation. 3 Lit., " conceive these torches."

4 Lit, " have roared with tremblings of the earth."

5 The us. reads conru-isse auras temporum, all except the first four
edd. inserting p as above. Meursius would also change temp, into ven-
torum — " the breezes of the winds."

6 So the MS., reading comptu — tie, according to Hild., followed by
LB. and Orelli.

220 ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. [BOOK iv.

order1 [it causes]. For it cannot be, in the nature of things,
that what is one should become two ; and that unity, which is
naturally uncompounded, should divide and go apart into sepa-
rate things?

1 Lit., " mixture."

8 The words in italics are bracketed in LB. as spurious or corrupt, or
at least as here out of place. Orelli transposes them to ch. 13, as was
noticed there, although he regards them as an interpolation. The clause
is certainly a very strange one, and has a kind of affected abstractness,
•which makes it seem out of place ; but it must be remembered that simi-
larly confused and perplexing sentences are by no means rare in Arno-
bius. If the clause is to be retained, as good sense can be made from it
here as anywhere else. The general meaning would be : The gods, if
angry, are angry with the pagans; but if they are not subject to passion,
it would be idle to speak of them as angry with the Christians, seeing
that they cannot possibly at once be incapable of feeling anger, and yet
at the same time be angry with them.

BOOK V.

ARGUMENT.

IT might be said that these charges were founded by Arnobius on the
writings of poets and actions of stage-players, and that the heathen
generally could not therefore be held guilty. Such a defence, however,
would not avail those who in their histories and religious rites were not
less impious and insulting to the deities. Arnobius proceeds, therefore,
to narrate the story, told by Antias, of Jupiter's being tricked by
Numa (1), and criticises it minutely, showing the manifest absurdity
and impiety of representing man as overcoming and deluding the gods
(2-4). He next relates from Timotheus the origin of Acdestis (5) ; the
base and degrading expedients which the gods were compelled to adopt
in order that they might rid themselves of his audacity ; and the extra-
ordinary birth (6) and death of Attis, and institution of the rites of the
Great Mother in memory of him (7). This story also is criticised at
great length, its absurdity, indecency, and silliness being brought pro-
minently forward (8-14) ; while it is pointed out that the truth or
falsehood of the story is of no consequence to the argument, as all that
Arnobius wishes to prove is, that any deities which exist are more
grossly insulted by their own worshippers than by Christians (15). But,
he says, how can you maintain that this story is false, when the cere-
monies you are ever observing always refer to the events of which it
speaks (16, 17) ?

Neglecting many similar stories as too numerous to be related, he
merely mentions Fenta Fauna, the birth of Servius Tullius (18), the
Omophagia, rites of Venus, Corybantia, and the Bacchanalia which
relate the dismembering of Bacchus (19). The story is next related of
Jupiter's amours with Ceres as a bull, and with Proserpine as a serpent
(20, 21), in which, Aruobius says, it might be thought that it was
wished to make Jupiter an embodiment of all the vices (22) ; and then
notes, with bitter irony, how the Supreme Ruler is belittled by their
trivial and degrading tales (23). Passing now to the other deities,
Arnobius narrates the wanderings of Ceres, and the origin, in conse-
quence, of the Thesmophoria and Eleusinia (24-27). So, too, the
obscene Alimontia are shown to have an origin as shameful (28) ; and
Arnobius indignantly asks, whether such a tale does not strike at the
foundation of all morality? and whether Christians are to be forced, by
fear of torment and death, to worship such deities (29), for disbelief in
whom he cannot bat wonder that men are called atheists V (30). Since,
221

222 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK v.

then, it is the heathon who so insult their own deities, the wrath of the
gods must be against their worshippers, not against Christians (31).

The suggestion that these stories are allegories (32) he scouts as
utterly absurd, pointing out the impossibility of finding any meaning in
some parts of the fables, insisting that as every detail is not allegorical,
no part can be, and supposing that lie thus shows that these must be
accounts of actual events (33-39). If, however, these tales are alle-
gories, do they not, Arnobius asks, do the gods wrong by imputing to
them as crimes what are merely natural phenomena (40) ? that is, do
they not turn into obscenity that which is pure and honourable in itself,
while allegory is rather used to hide under a cloak of decency what is
indecent (41) ? There is but one other pretext, that the gods them-
selves would have their mysteries made allegories, not choosing that they
.should be generally understood. But how was this ascertained? and
why would they not allow the truth to be told, against which no objec-
tion could be taken, preferring indecent and shameful allegory (42)?
These explanations, then, are merely attempts to get rid of difficulties
(43); attempts, too, which could not be very successful, for many
shameful tales do not admit of explanation as allegories (44). What
remarkable modesty is this, to blush at the mention of bread and wine,
and to say fearlessly Venus for a shameful act ! (45.)

JDMITTING that all these things which do
the immortal gods dishonour, have been put
forth by poets merely in sport, what [are we
to say of] those found in grave, serious, and
careful histories, and handed down by you in hidden mys-
teries ? have they been invented by the licentious fancy
of the poets ? Now if they seemed l to you stories of
such absurdity, some of them you would neither retain in
their constant use, nor celebrate as solemn festivals from
year to year, nor would you maintain them among your
sacred rites as shadows of real events. With strict modera-
tion, I shall adduce only one of these stories which are so
numerous; that in which Jupiter himself is brought on the
stage as stupid and inconsiderate, being tricked by the ambi-
guity of words. In the second book of Antias — lest any one
should think, perchance, that we are fabricating charges
calumniously — the following story is written : The famous
king Numa, not knowing how to avert evil portended by
thunder, and being eager to learn, by advice of Egeria coii-
1 So most edd., inserting er; in MS. and Oehler, vid-entur.

BOOKV.J ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 223

coaled beside a fountain twelve chaste youths provided with
chains ; so that when Faunus and Martins l Picus came to
this place2 to drink (for hither they were wont to come3 to
draw water), they might rush on them, seize and bind them.
But, that this might be done more speedily, the king filled
many4 cnps with wine and with mead,5 and placed them
about the approaches to the fountain, where they would be
seen — a crafty snare for those who should come. They, as
was their usual custom, when overcome by thirst, came to
their well-known haunts. But when they had perceived cups
with sweetly smelling liquors, they preferred the new to the
old ; rushed eagerly upon them ; charmed with the sweetness
of the draught, drank too much ; and becoming drunk, fell
fast asleep. Then the twelve [youths] threw themselves
upon the sleepers, [and] cast chains round them, lying soaked
with wine ; and they,6 when roused, immediately taught the
king by what methods and sacrifices Jupiter could be called
down to earth. With this knowledge the king performed
the sacred ceremony on the Aventine, drew down Jupiter to
the earth, and asked from him the due form of expiation.
Jupiter having long hesitated, said, Thou shalt avert what is
portended by thunder icith a head.1 The king answered, With
an onion.8 Jupiter again, With a man's. The king returned,
But with hair.9 The deity in turn, With the life.10 With a

1 So named either because he was said to have made use of the bird
of Mars, i.e. a woodpecker (/H'CHS), in augury, or because according to
the legend he was changed into one by Circe.

2 i.e. the Aventine. The story is told by Plutarch in his Life of Numa,
c. 15, and by Ovid, Fasti, iii. 291 sqq.

3 The MS. reads, soltemniter hsec, corrected, as above, solenne iter hue by
all edd. except Hild.

4 So the MS. and most edd., reading pocula non parvi numeri, for which
Elm. and Orelli have received from the margin of Ursinus, poc. non parva
mero — " cups of great size, with pure wine."

6 i.e. mulsum. 6 i.e. Faunus and Picus.

7 Capite. 8 C&pitio.

9 Jupiter is supposed to say humano, meaning capite, to be understood,
i.e. " with a man's head," while the king supplies capillo — " with a man's
hair."

10 Anima (MS. lia).

224 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boo* v.

fish,1 rejoined Pompilius. Then Jupiter, being ensnared by
the ambiguous terms used, uttered these words : Thou hast
overreached me, Numa ; for I had determined that evils por-
tended by thunder should be averted toith [sacrifices of] human
heads, not2 with hair [and] an onion. Since, however, your
craft has outwitted me, have the mode which you wished ; and
always undertake the expiation of thunder-portents with those
things which you have bargained for.

2. What the inind should take up first, what last, or what
it should pass by silently, it is not easy to say, nor is it made
clear by any amount of reflection ; for all have been so
devised and fitted to be laughed at, that you should strive
that they may be believed to be false — even if they are true
— rather than pass current as true, and suggest as it were
something extraordinary, and bring contempt upon deitv
itself. What, then, do you say, O you — ? Are we to believe3
that that Faunus and Martins Picus (if they are of the
number of the gods, and of that everlasting and immortal
substance) were once parched with thirst, and sought the
gushing fountains, that they might be able to cool with
water their heated veins? Are we .to believe that, ensnared
by wine, and beguiled by the sweetness of mead, they dipped
so long into the treacherous cups, that they even got into
danger of becoming drunk ? Are we to believe that, being
fast asleep, arid plunged in the forgetfulness of most profound
slumbers, they gave to creatures of earth an opportunity to
bind them ? On what parts, then, were those bonds and
chains flung? Did they have any solid substance, or had
their hands been formed of hard bones, so that it might be
possible to bind them with halters and hold them fast by
tightly drawn knots ? For I do not ask, I do not inquire

1 Msena. There is here a lacuna in the text ; but there can be no
difficulty in filling it up as above, with Heraldus from Plutarch, or with
Gelenius from Ovid, piscis — " [with the life] of a fish."

2 The MS. and both Roman edd. read Numa, corrected by Geleuius, as
above, non.

8 The MS. and edd. read cred-i-musne — " do we believe," for which
Meursius suggests -e- as above.

BOOK v.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 225

whether they could have said anything when swaying to and
fro in their drunken maunderings ; or whether, while Jupiter
was unwilling, or rather unwitting, any one could have made
known the way to bring him down to earth. This only do I
wish to hear, why, if Faunus and Picus are of divine origin
and power, they did not rather themselves declare to Numa,
as he questioned them, that which he desired to learn from
Jove himself at a greater risk ? Or l did Jupiter alone have
knowledge of this — for from him the thunderbolts fall — how
training in some kind of knowledge should avert impending
dangers ? Or, while he himself hurls these fiery bolts, is it
the business of others to know in what way it is fitting to
allay his wrath and indignation? For truly it would be
most absurd to suppose that he himself appoints 2 the means
by which may be averted that which he has determined
should befall men through the hurling of his thunderbolts.
For this is to say, By such ceremonies you will turn aside my
wrath ; and if I shall at any time have foreshown by flashes
of lightning that some evil is close at hand, do this and
that, so that3 what I have determined should be done may
be done altogether in vain, and may pass away idly through
the force 4 of these rites.

3. But let us admit that, as is said, Jupiter has himself
appointed against himself ways and means by which his own
declared purposes might fittingly be opposed : are we also to
believe that a deity of so great majesty was dragged down to
earth, and, standing on a petty hillock with a mannikin, entered
into a wrangling dispute 1 And what, I ask, was the charm
which forced Jupiter to leave the all-important5 direction of
the universe, and appear at the bidding of mortals ? the
sacrificial meal, incense, blood, the scent of burning laurel-

1 Lit., " or whether." Below the MS. reads corruptly ad ipsum — " to
him."

2 The MS. reads scire, but " knows " would hardly suit the context.
Instead of adopting any conjecture, however, it is sufficient to observe,
with Oehler, that scire is elsewhere used as a contraction for sciscere.

3 The MS. omits ut.

4 So Cujacius, inserting vit omitted by the MS.
* Lit., " so great."

AIlNOli. f

226 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK v.

boughs,1 and muttering of spells ? And were all these more
powerful than Jupiter, so that they compelled him to do
unwillingly what was enjoined, or to give himself up of his
own accord to their crafty tricks ? What ! will what follows
be believed, that the son of Saturn had so little foresight,
that he either proposed terms by the ambiguity of which he
was himself ensnared, or did not know what was going to
happen, how the craft and cunning of a mortal would over-
reach him f You shall make expiation, he says, with a head
when thunderbolts have fallen. The phrase is still incomplete,
and the meaning is not fully expressed and defined ; for it
was necessarily right to know whether Diespiter ordains
that this expiation be effected with the head of a wether, a
sow, an ox, or any other animal. Now, as he had not yet
fixed this specifically, and his decision was still uncertain
and not yet determined, how could Numa know that Jupiter
would say the head of a man, so as to2 anticipate [and] pre-
vent [him], and turn his uncertain and ambiguous words3
into " an onion's head ? "

4. But you will perhaps say that the king was a diviner.
Could he be more so than Jupiter himself? But for a
mortal's anticipating4 what Jupiter (whom5 he overreached)
was going to say, could the god not know in what ways a
man was preparing to overreach him ? Is it not, then, clear
and manifest that these are puerile and fanciful inventions, by
which, while a lively wit is assigned6 to Numa, the greatest
want of foresight is imputed to Jupiter? For what shows
so little foresight as to confess that you have been ensnared
by the subtlety of a man's intellect, and while you are vexed
at being deceived, to give way to the wishes of him who has
overcome you, and to lay aside the means which you had

1 Lit., "the fumigation of verbena;," Le. of boughs of the laurel, olive,
or myrtle.

2 The MS. omits ut.

3 Lit., " the uncertain [things] of that ambiguity."

4 Lit, " unless a mortal anticipated " — prsesumeret, the MS. reading.
6 So Oehler, supplying quern.

* Lit, u liveliness of heart is procured."

BOOKV.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 227

proposed ? For if there was reason and some natural fitness
that1 expiatory sacrifice for that which was struck with light-
ning should have been made with a man's head, I do not see
why the proposal of an onion's was made by the king; but if
it could be performed with an onion also, there was a greedy
lust for human blood. And both parts are made to contradict
themselves : so that, on the one hand, Numa is shown not
to have wished to know what he did wish ; and, on the other,
Jupiter is shown to have been merciless, because he said that
he wished expiation to be made with the heads of men, which
could have been done by Numa with an onion's head.

5. In Timotheus, who was no mean mythologist, and also
in others equally well informed, the birth of the Great
Mother of the gods, and the origin of her rites, are thus de-
tailed, being derived (as he himself writes and suggests) from
learned books of antiquities, and from [his acquaintance with]
the most secret mysteries : — Within the confines of Phrygia,
he says, there is a rock of unheard-of wildness in every re-
spect, the name of which is Agdus, so named by the natives
of that district. Stones taken from it, as Themis by her
oracle2 had enjoined, Deucalion and Pyrrha threw upon the
earth, at that time emptied of men ; from which this Great
Mother, too, as she is called, was fashioned along with the
others, and animated by the Deity. Her, given over to rest
and sleep on the very summit of the rock, Jupiter assailed
with lewdest3 desires. But when, after long strife, he could
not accomplish what he had proposed to himself, he, baffled,
spent his lust on the stone. This the rock received, and with
many groanings Acdestis4 is born in the tenth month, being
named from his mother rock. In him there had been resist-
less might, and a fierceness of disposition beyond control, a lust

1 Lit., " why."

* So Ovid also (Metam. i. 321), and others, speak of Themis as the first
to give oracular responses.

8 So the MS. and edd., reading quam incestis, except Orelli, who adopts
the conjecture of Barthius, nequam — " lustful Jupiter with lewd desires."

4 So the MS. and edd., except Hildebrand and Oehler, who throughout
Bpell Agdestis, following the Greek writers, and the derivation of the
word from Agdus.

228 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boon r.

made furious, and [derived] from both sexes.1 He violently
plundered and laid waste ; he scattered destruction wherever
the ferocity of his disposition had led him ; he regarded not
gods or men, nor did he think anything more powerful than
himself ; he contemned earth, heaven, and the stars.

6. Now, when it had been often considered in the councils
of the gods, by what means it might be possible either to
weaken or to curb his audacity, Liber, the rest hanging back,
takes upon himself this task. With the strongest wine he
drugs a spring much resorted to by Acdestis,2 where he had
been wont to assuage the heat and burning thirst3 roused [in
him] by sport and hunting. Hither runs Acdestis to drink
when he felt the need ;4 he gulps down the draught too
greedily into his gaping veins. Overcome by what he is
quite unaccustomed to, he is in consequence sent fast asleep.
Liber is near the snare [which he had set] ; over his foot he
throws one end of a halter 5 formed of hairs, woven together
very skilfully ; with the other end he lays hold of his privy
members. When the fumes of the wine passed off, Acdestis
starts up furiously, and his foot dragging the noose, by his
own strength he robs himself of his6 sex ; with the tearing
asunder of [these] parts there is an immense flow of blood ;
both7 are carried off and swallowed up by the earth ; from
them there suddenly springs up, covered with fruit, a pome-
granate tree, seeing the beauty of which, with admiration,
Nana,8 daughter of the king or river Sangarius, gathers and
places in her bosom [some of the fruit]. By this she becomes

1 So Ursinus suggested, followed by later edd., ex utroqne (MS. iitrci.}
sexu; for which Meursius would read ex utroque sexus — " and a sex of
both," i.e. that he was a hermaphrodite, which is related by other writers.

2 Lit, " him." 3 Lit., " of thirsting." 4 Lit., " in time of need."

5 So the reading of the MS. and edd., unwn laqueum, may be rendered ;
for which Canterus conjectured imum — " the lowest part of the noose."

6 So the edd., reading eo quo (MS. quod) fuerat privat sexu ; for which
Hild. and Oehler read fu-tu-erat — " of the sex with which he had been a
fornicator."

7 Lit., " these (i.e. the parts and the blood) are," etc.

8 The MS. here reads Nata, but in c. 13 the spelling is Nana, as in other
writers.

BOOKV.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 229 :

pregnant ; her father shuts her up, supposing that she had
been1 debauched, and seeks to have her starved to death;
she is kept alive by the mother of the gods with apples, and
other food,2 [and] brings forth a child, but Sangarius3 orders
it to be exposed. One Phorbas having found the child, takes
it home,4 brings it up on goats' milk ; and as handsome
fellows are so named in Lydia, or because the Phrygians in
their own way of speaking call their goats attagi, it happened
in consequence that [the boy] obtained the name Attis. Him
the mother of the gods loved exceedingly, because he was of
most surpassing beauty ; and Acdestis, [who was] his com-
panion, as he grew up fondling him, and bound [to him] by
wicked compliance with his lust in the only way now possible,
leading him through the wooded glades, and presenting him
with the spoils of many wild beasts, which the boy Attis at
first said boastfully were won by his own toil and labour.
Afterwards, under the influence of wine, he admits that he
is both loved by Acdestis, and honoured by him with the
gifts brought from the forest; whence it is unlawful for those
polluted by [drinking] wine to enter into his sanctuary, be-
cause it discovered his secret.5

7. Then Midas, king of Pessinus, wishing to withdraw the
youth from so disgraceful an intimacy, resolves to give him
his own daughter in marriage, and caused the [gates of the]
town to be closed, that no one of evil omen might disturb
their marriage joys. But the mother of the gods, knowing
the fate of the youth, and that he would live among men in
safety [only] so long as he was free from the ties of marriage,
that no disaster might occur, enters the closed city, raising its

1 Lit., " as if."

2 The MS. reads t-alulis, corrected as above p- by Jos. Scaliger, followed
by Hild. and Oehler. The other edd. read bacculis — "berries."

3 So all the edd., except Hild. and Oehler, who retain the MS. reading
tanguinarius — " bloodthirsty."

* So Salmasius, Orelli, and Hild., reading repertum rtescio quis sumit
Phorlas, lacte ; but no mention of any Phorbas is made elsewhere in con-
nection with this story, and Oehler has therefore proposed forma ac lacte
— " some one takes [the child] found, nourishes it with sweet pottage of
millet (forma) and milk," etc. * Lit., '• his silence."

230 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK v.

walls with her head, which began to be crowned with towers
in consequence. Acdestis, bursting with rage because of the
boy's being torn from himself, and brought to seek a wife,
fills all the guests with frenzied madness : l the Phrygians
shriek aloud, panic-stricken at the appearance of the gods ; 2
a daughter of adulterous3 Gallus cuts off her breasts ; Attis
snatches the pipe borne by him who was goading them to
frenzy ; and he, too, now filled with furious passion, raving
franticly [and] tossed about, throws himself down at last,
and under a pine tree mutilates himself, saying, Take these*
Acdestis, for which you have stirred up so great and terribly
perilous commotions.5 With the streaming blood his life flies ;
but the Great Mother of the gods gathers the parts which had
been cut off, and throws earth on them, having first covered
them, and wrapped 6 them in the garment of the dead. From
the blood which had flowed springs a flower, the violet, and
with7 this the tree8 is girt. Thence the custom began and
arose, whereby you even now veil and wreath with flowers the
sacred pine. The virgin who had been the bride (whose name,
as Valerius9 the pontifex relates, was la) veils the breast of
the lifeless [youth] with soft wool, sheds tears with Acdestis,
and slays herself. After her death her blood is changed

1 Lit., " fury and madness."

2 The MS., first five edd., and Oberthiir, read exterriti adorandorum
Phryges ; for which Ursinus suggested ad ora deorum — " at the faces of
gods," adopted by Oehler ; the other edd. reading ad horam — " at the
hour, i.e. thereupon."

8 It seems probable that part of this chapter has been lost, as we
have no explanation of this epithet ; and, moreover (as Oehler has well
remarked), in c. 13 this Gallus is spoken of as though it had been pre-
viously mentioned that he too had mutilated himself, of which we have
not the slightest hint.

4 i.e. genitalia. 'Lit., " so great motions of furious hazards."

6 So most edd., reading veste prius tectis atque involutes for the MS.
reading, retained by Hild. and Oehler, tecta atque involuta — "his vest
being fir^t drawn over and wrapt about them ; " the former verb being
found with this meaning in no other passage, and the second very rarely.

7 Lit., " from." 8 i.e. the pine.

9 Nouny supposes that this may refer to M. Valerius Messala, a frag-
ment from whom on auspices has been preserved by Gellius (xiii. 15) ;
while Hild. thinks that Antias is meant, who is mentioned in c 1.

BOOK v.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 231

into purple violets. The mother of the gods shed tears also,1
from which springs an almond tree, signifying the bitterness
of death.2 Then she bears away to her cave the pine tree,
beneath which Attis had unmanned himself ; and Acdestis
joining in her wailings, she beats and wounds her breast,
[pacing] round the trunk of the tree now at rest.3 Jupiter
is begged by Acdestis that Attis may be restored to life : he
does not permit it. What, however, fate allowed,4 he readily
grants, that his body should not decay, that his hairs should
always grow, that the least of his fingers should live, and
should be kept ever in motion ; content with which favours,
[it is said] that Acdestis consecrated the body in Pessinus,
[and] honoured it with yearly rites and priestly services.5

8. If some one, despising the deities, and furious with a
savagely sacrilegious spirit, had set himself to blaspheme your
gods, would he dare to say against them anything more severe
than this tale relates, which you have reduced to form, as
though [it were] some wonderful narrative, and have honoured
without ceasing,6 lest the power of time and the remoteness7 of
antiquity should cause it to be forgotten ? For what is there
asserted in it, or what written about the gods, which, if said
with regard to a man brought up with bad habits and a pretty
rough training, would not make you liable to be accused of
wronging and insulting him, and expose you to hatred and

1 So Orelli punctuates and explains ; but it is doubtful whether, even
if this reading be retained, it should not be translated, " bedewed these
[violets]." The sis. reads, suffodit et as (probably has)— " digs under
these," emended as above in LB., suffudit et has.

2 Lit., " burial."

3 So it has been attempted to render the MS., reading pausatx circum
arloris ro&wr, which has perplexed the different edd. Heraldus proposed
pausate — " at intervals round the trunk of the tree ; " LB. reads -ata
— '' round . . . tree having rested." Reading as above, the reference
might be either to the rest from motion after being set up in the cave,
or to the absence of wind there.

4 Lit., " could be done through (i.e. as far as concerns) fate."

6 So Oehler, reading sacerdotum antistitiis for the MS. anti-stibus, changed
in both Roman edd. and Hild. to -stitibus — " with priests (or overseers)
of priests." Salmasius proposed intestibus — " with castrated priests."

6 i.e. in the ever recurring festival of Cybele. 7 Lit., " length."

232 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boos v.

dislike, accompanied by implacable resentment ? From the
stones, you say, which Deucalion and Pyrrha threw, was
produced the mother of the gods. What do you say, O
theologians ? what, ye priests of the heavenly powers ? Did
the mother of the gods, then, not exist at all for the sake of
the deluge ? and would there be no cause or beginning of her
birth, had not violent storms of rain swept away the whole
race of men ? It is through man, then, that she feels herself
to exist, and she owes it to Pyrrha' s kindness that she sees
herself addressed as a real being;1 but if that is indeed true,
this too will of necessity not be false, that she was human,
not divine. For if it is certain that men are sprung origin-
ally from the casting of stones, it must be believed that she
too was one of us, since she was produced by means of the
same causes. For it cannot be, for nature would not suffer
it,2 that from one kind of stones, and from the same mode of
throwing [them], some should be formed to rank among the
immortals, others with the condition of men. Varro, that
famous Roman, distinguished by the diversity of his learning,
and unwearied in his researches into ancient times, in the
first of four books which he has left in writing on the race of
the Roman people, shows by careful calculations, that from
the time of the deluge, which we mentioned before, down to
the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa,3 there are not quite two
thousand years ; and if he is to be believed, the Great Mother,
too, must be said to have her whole life bounded by the
limits of this number. And thus the matter is brought to this
issue, that she who is said to be parent of all the deities is
not their mother, but their daughter ; nay, rather a [mere]
child, a little girl, since we admit that in the never-ending
series of ages neither beginning nor end has been ascribed to
the gods.

9. But why do we speak of your having bemired the great
mother of the gods with the filth of earth, when you have not

1 So the edd., reading orariin alicujus substantix qualitate for the MS.
erari restored by Oehler, num-erari — " numbered in the quality of some
substance," from the reading of an old copy adopted by Livineius.

8 Lit., " through the resistance of nature." 3 B.C. 43.

BOOKV.] ARNOBIUS ADVEESUS GENTES. 233

been able for but a little time even to keep from speaking evil
of Jupiter himself ? While the mother of the gods was then
sleeping on the highest peak of Agclus, her son, you say,
tried stealthily to surprise her chastity while she slept.
After robbing of their chastity virgins and matrons without
number, did Jupiter hope to gratify his detestable passion
upon his mother? and could he not be turned from his
fierce desire by the horror which nature itself has excited
not only in men, but in some [other] animals also, and by
common l feeling ? Was he then regardless of piety 2 and
honour, who is chief in the temples ? and could he neither
reconsider nor perceive how wicked was his desire, his mind
being madly agitated ? But, as it is, forgetting his majesty
and dignit}r, he crept forward to steal those vile pleasures,
trembling and quaking with fear, holding his breath, walk-
ing in terror on tiptoe, and, between hope and fear, touched
her secret parts, trying how soundly his mother slept, and
what she would suffer.3 Oh, shameful representation ! oh,
disgraceful plight of Jupiter, prepared to attempt a filthy
contest \ Did the ruler of the world, then, turn to force,
when, in his heedlessness and haste, he was prevented from
stealing on by surprise ;4 and when he was unable to snatch
his pleasure by cunning craft, did he assail his mother with
violence, and begin without any concealment to destroy the
chastity which he should have revered? Then, having striven
for a very long time when she is unwilling, did he go off
conquered, vanquished, and overcome? and did his spent
lust part him whom piety was unable to hold back from
execrable lust after his mother?

10. But you will perhaps say the human race shuns and
execrates such unions;5 among the gods there is 110 incest.

1 Lit., " the feeling commonly implanted."

2 Lit., "was regard of piety -wanting" — defuit, an emendation of
Salmasius (according to Orelli) for the MS. depuit.

3 Lit, " the depth and patience of his sleeping mother."

4 Lit., " from the theft of taking by surprise " — obreptionis, for which
the MS., first fouredd., Oberth., Hild., and Oehlerread object. — "of what
he proposed."

8 So Heraldus, reading conventionis Jinjusmodi ccetum for the MS. cceptwn.

234 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK v.

And why, [then,] did his mother resist with the greatest vehe-
mence her son when he offered her violence ? Why did she
flee from his embraces, as if she were avoiding unlawful
approaches ? For if there was nothing wrong in so doing,
she should have gratified him without any reluctance, just
as he eagerly wished to satisfy the cravings of his lust. And
here, indeed, very thrifty men, and frugal even about shame-
ful works, that that sacred seed may not seem to have been
poured forth in vain — the rock, one says, drank up Jupiter's
foul incontinence. What followed next, I ask? Tell. In the
very heart of the rock, and in that flinty hardness, a child was
formed and quickened to be the offspring of great Jupiter. It
is not easy to object to conceptions so unnatural and so won-
derful. For as the human race is said by you to have sprung
and proceeded from stones, it must be believed that the stones
both had genital parts, and drank in the seed cast on them, and
when their time was full were pregnant,1 and at last brought
forth, travailing in distress as women do. That impels our
curiosity to inquire, since you say that the birth occurred
after ten months, in what womb of the rock was he enclosed
at that time? with what food, with what juices, was he sup-
plied ? or what could he have drawn to support him from the
hard stone, as unborn infants usually [receive] from their
mothers'? He had not yet reached the light, [my informant]
says; and already bellowing and imitating his father's thun-
derings, he reproduced [their sound].2 And after it was given
him to see the sky and the light of day, attacking all things
which lay in his way, he made havoc of them, and assured
himself that he was able to thrust down from heaven the
gods themselves. O cautious and foreseeing mother of the
gods, who, that she might not undergo the ill-will of so3 arro-
gant a son, or that his bellowing while still unborn might
not disturb her slumbers or break her repose, withdrew her-
self, and sent far from her that most hurtful seed, and gave
it to the rough rock.

1 Sustulisse alvos graves. 2 Most edd. read as an interrogation.

8 Perhaps, " that she might not be subject to ill-will for having borne

BO.'1

BOOK v.] ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 235

11. There was doubt in the councils of the gods how that
unyielding and fierce violence was to be subdued ; and when
there was no other way, they had recourse to one means,
that he should be soaked with much wine, and bereft of his
members, by their being cut off. As if, indeed, those who
have suffered the loss of these parts become less arrogant,
and [as if] we do not daily see those who have cut them
away from themselves become more wanton, and, neglecting
all the restraints of chastity and modesty, throw themselves
headlong into filthy vileness, making known abroad their
shameful deeds. I should like, however, to see — were it
granted me to be born at those times — father Liber, who
overcame the fierceness of Acdestis, having glided down from
the peaks of heaven after the very venerable meetings of the
gods, cropping the tails of horses,1 plaiting pliant halters,
drugging the waters harmless while pure with much strong
wine, and after that drunkenness sprung from drinking, to
have carefully introduced his hands, handled the members of
the sleeper, and directed his care skilfully2 to the parts which
were to perish, so that the hold of the nooses placed round
[them] might surround them all.

12. Would any one say this about the gods who had even a
very low opinion of them ? or, if they were taken up with such
affairs, considerations, cares, would any man of wisdom either
believe that they are gods, or reckon them among men even ?
Was that Acdestis, pray, the lopping off of whose lewd mem-
bers was to give a sense of security to the immortals, [was
he] one of the creatures of earth, or one of the gods, and
possessed of3 immortality? For if he was thought [to be]
of our lot and in the condition of men, why did he cause
the deities so much terror? But if he was a god, how could
he be deceived, or [how] could anything be cut off from a

1 i.e. to form nooses with. The reading translated is an emendation
of Jos. Scaliger, adopted by Orelli, peniculamenta decurtantem cantheri-
orum, for the MS. peniculantem decurtam tarn cantJierios, emended by each
ed. as he has thought fit.

2 Lit., "the cares of art."

a Lit., " endowed with the honour of."

236 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF fBoos v.

divine body ? 1 But we raise no issue on this point : he may
have been of divine birth, or one of us, if you think it more
correct to say so. Did a pomegranate tree, also, spring from
the blood which flowed and from the parts which were cut
off ? or at the time when 2 that member was concealed in the
bosom of the earth, did it lay hold of the ground with a root,
and spring up into a mighty tree, put forth branches loaded
with blossoms,3 and in a moment bare mellow fruit perfectly
and completely ripe? And because these sprang from red
blood, is their colour therefore bright purple, with a dash
of yellow? Say further that they are juicy also, that they
have the taste of wine, because they spring from the blood
of one filled with it, and you have finished your story consis-
tently. O Abdera, Abdera, what occasions for mocking [you
would give4] to men, if such a tale had been devised by you!
All fathers relate it, and haughty states peruse it; and you
are considered foolish, and utterly dull and stupid.

13. Through her bosom, we are told,5 Nana conceived a
son by an apple. The opinion is self-consistent ; for where
rocks and hard stones bring forth, there apples must have
their time of generating.6 The Berecyntian goddess fed the
imprisoned maiden with nuts7 and figs, fitly and rightly; for
it was right that she should live on apples who had been
made a mother by an apple. After her offspring was born,
it was ordered by Sangarius to be cast far away : that which
he believed to be divinely conceived long before, he would
not have8 called the offspring of his child. The infant was
brought up on he-goats' milk. O story ever opposed and
most inimical to the male sex, in which not only do men lay
aside their virile powers, but beasts even which were males

1 The MS. here inserts de — " from the body from a divine [being]."

2 So the edd. (except Oehler), reading turn cum for the MS. turn quie quod.

3 JBalaustiis, the flowers of the wild pomegranate.

4 Dares supplied by Salmasius. 5 Lit., " he says."

6 Lit., "must rut" — suriant, as deer. The MS., first four edd., and Elm.
road surgant — " rise," corrected as above in the margin of Ursiuus.

1 Lit., "acorns" — glandibus.

* The MS. reads des-, emended as above ded-ignatus by Stewechius,
followed by Heraldus and Orelli.

BOOKV.] AENOB1US ADVEUSUS GENTES. 237

become mothers!1 He was famous for his beauty, and dis-
tinguished by his remarkable 2 comeliness. It is wonderful
enough that the noisome stench of goats did not cause him
to be avoided and fled from. The Great Mother loved him —
if as a grandmother her grandson, there is nothing wrong ;
but if as the theatres tell, her love is infamous and disgrace-
ful. Acdestis, too, loved him above all, enriching him with a
hunter's gifts. There could be no danger to his purity from
one emasculated, [you say] ; but is it not easy to guess what
Midas dreaded? The Mother entered bearing3 the very
walls. Here we wondered, indeed, at the might and strength
of the deity; but again4 we blame her carelessness, because
when she remembered the decree of fate,5 she heedlessly laid
open the city to its enemies. Acdestis excites to fury and
madness those celebrating the nuptial vows. If King Midas
had displeased [dim] who was binding the youth to a wife,
of what had Gallus been guilty, and his concubine's daughter,
that he should rob himself of his manhood, she herself of
her breasts ? Take and keep these, says he,6 because of which
you have excited such commotions to the overwhelming of [owr]
minds with fear. We should none of us yet know what the
frenzied Acdestis had desired in his paramour's body, had
not the boy thrown to him, to appease his wrath,7 the parts
cut off.

14. What say you, O races and nations, given up to such
beliefs ? When these things are brought forward, are you
not ashamed and confounded to say things so indecent?
We wish to hear or learn from you something befitting the
gods ; but you, on the contrary, bring forward to us the
cutting off of breasts, the lopping off of men's members,

J i.e. he-goats are made to yield milk.

2 Lit, " praiseworthy." 8 Lit., " with."

4 So the MS., both Roman edd., LB., Hild., and Oehler, reading rt/r««,
for which the others receive the emendation of Gelenius, regis — "the
king's carelessness."

5 Lit., " the law and fate." 6 i.e. Attis.

7 The MS. reads satietati-s objecisset offensi, corrected as above by Hild.
(omitting s), followed by Oehler. The conjectures of previous edd. ate
very harsh and forced.

238 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boos v.

ragings, blood, frenzies, the self-destruction of maidens, and
flowers and trees begotten from the blood of the dead. Say,
again, did the mother of the gods, then, with careful dili-
gence herself gather in her grief the scattered genitals with
the shed blood?1 With her own sacred, her own divine2
hands, did she touch and lift up the instruments of a dis-
graceful and indecent office ? Did she also commit them to
the earth to be hid from sight ; and lest in this case they
should, being uncovered, be dispersed in the bosom of the
earth, did she indeed wash and anoint them with fragrant
gums before wrapping and covering them with his dress?
For whence could the violet's sweet scent have come had not
the addition of those ointments modified the putrefying smell
of the member ? Pray, when you read such tales, do you
not seem to yourselves to hear either girls at the loom wiling
away their tedious working hours, or old women seeking
diversions for credulous children, and to be declaring mani-
fold fictions under the guise of truth? Acdestis appealed to 3
Jupiter to restore life to his paramour : Jupiter would not
consent, because he was hindered by the fates more power-
ful [than himself] ; and that he might not be in every
respect very hard-hearted, he granted one favour — that the
body should not decay through any corruption ; that the hair
should always grow ; that the least of his fingers alone in his
body should live, alone keep always in motion. Would any
one grant this, or support it with an unhesitating assent, that
hair grows on a dead body, — that part* perished, and that
the [rest of his] mortal body, free from the law of corrup-
tion, remains even still?

15. We might long ago have urged you to ponder this, were
it not foolish to ask proofs of such things, as well as to say 5
them. But this story is false, and is wholly untrue. It is

1 Lit, "flows."

2 Lit., " herself with sacred, herself with divine."
8 Lit., "spoke with."

4 i.e. the part cut off and buried separately.

5 So the MS., according to Crusius, the edd. inserting s, rfj'-s-ccrc—
" to learn."

BOOK v.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 239

no matter to us, indeed, because of whom you maintain that
the gods have been driven from the earth, whether it is con-
sistent and rests on a sure foundation,1 or is, on the con-
trary, framed and devised in utter falsehood. For to us it is
enough — who have proposed this day to make it plain — that
those deities whom you bring forward, if they are anywhere
on earth, and glow with the fires of anger, are not more
excited to furious hatred by us than by you ; and that that
[story] has been classed as an event and committed to
writing by you, and is willingly read over by you every day,
and handed down in order for the edifying of later times.
Now, if this [story] is indeed true, we see that there is no
reason in it why the celestial gods should be asserted to be
angry with us, since we have neither declared things so much
to their disgrace, nor committed them to writing at all, nor
brought them publicly to light2 by the celebration of sacred
rites ; but if, as you think, it is untrue, and made up of
delusive falsehoods, no man can doubt that you are the cause
of offence, who have either allowed certain persons to write
such stories, or have suffered [them], when written, to abide
in the memory of ages.

16. And yet how can you assert the falsehood of this story,
when the very rites which you celebrate throughout the year
testify that you believe [these things] to be true, and consider
them perfectly trustworthy? For what is the meaning of
that pine3 which on fixed days you always bring into the
sanctuary of the mother of the gods ? Is it not in imitation
of that tree, beneath which the raging and ill-fated youth
laid hands upon himself, and [which] the parent of the gods
consecrated to relieve her sorrow ? 4 What mean the fleeces
of wool with which you bind and surround the trunk of the

1 Lit., "on firmness of faith."

2 Lit., " sent to public testifying."

3 The festival of Cybele began on the 22d of March, when a pine tree
was introduced into the mysteries, and continued until the 27th, which
was marked by a general purification (lai-atio'), as Salmasius observed
from a calendar of Constantine the Great.

4 Lit., " for solace of so great a wound."

240 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK v.

tree ? Is it not to recall the wools with which la1 covered
the dying [youth], and thought that she could procure some
warmth for his limbs [fast] stiffening with cold ? What
[mean] the branches of the tree girt round and decked with
wreaths of violets ? Do they not mark this, how the Mother
adorned with early flowers the pine which indicates and bears
witness to the sad mishap I What [mean] the Gall? with
dishevelled hair beating their breasts with their palms ? Do
they not recall to memory those lamentations with which the
tower - bearing Mother, along with the weeping Acdestis,
wailing aloud,3 followed the boy ? What [means] the ab-
stinence from eating bread which you have named castus ?
Is it not in imitation of the time when the goddess abstained
from Ceres' fruit in her vehement sorrow?

17. Or if the things which we say are not so, declare, say
yourselves — those effeminate and delicate [men] whom we see
among you in the sacred rites of this deity — what business,
[what] care, [what] concern have they there ; and why do
they like mourners wound their arms and4 breasts, and act
as those dolefully circumstanced ? What [mean] the wreaths,
what the violets, what the swathings, the coverings of soft
wools ? Why, finally, is the very pine, but a little before
swaying to and fro among the shrubs, an utterly inert log,
set up in the temple of the mother of the gods next, like some
propitious and very venerable deity ? For either this is the
cause which we have found in your writings and treatises,
and [in that case] it is clear that you do not celebrate divine
rites, but give a representation of sad events ; or if there is
any other reason which the darkness of the mystery has with-

1 So Stewechius, followed by Orelli and Oehler, reading quibus la for
the MS. jam, which would refer the action to Cybele, whereas Arnobius
expressly says (c. 7) that it was the newly wedded wife who covered
the breast of Attis with wools. Jam is, however, received from the MS.
by the other edd., except Hild., who asserts that the MS. reads lam, and
Elmenh., who reads Ion.

2 i.e. priests of Cybele, their name being derived from the Phrygian
river Gallus, whose waters were supposed to bring on frenzy ending iu
self-mutilation.

8 Lit., " with wailing." * Lit., " with."

BOOKV.] ARNOB1US AD VERSUS GENTES. 241

held from us, even it also must be involved in the infamy of
some shameful deed. For who would believe that there is
any honour in that which the worthless Galli begin, effeminate
debauchees complete ?

18. The greatness of the subject, and our duty to those on
tliL-ir defence also,1 demand that we should in like manner
hunt up the other forms of baseness, whether those whicli
the histories of antiquity record, or those contained in the
sacred mysteries named initia? and not divulged3 openly to
all, but to the silence of a few ; but your innumerable sacred
rites, and the loathsomeness of them all,4 will not allow us to
go through them all bodily : nay, more, to tell the truth, we
turn aside ourselves from some purposely and intentionally,
lest, in striving to unfold all things, we should be defiled
by contamination in the very exposition. Let us pass by
Fauna5 Fatua, therefore, who is called Bona Dea, whom
Scxtus Clodius, in his sixth book in Greek on the gods, de-
clares to have been scourged to death with rods of myrtle,
because she drank a whole jar of wine without her husband's
knowledge ; and this is a proof, that when women show her
divine honour a jar of wine is placed [there, but] covered
from sight, and that it is not lawful to bring in twigs of
myrtle, as Butas6 mentions in his Causalia. But let us pass
by with similar neglect7 the dii conserentes, whom Flaccus
and others relate to have buried themselves, changed in
humani penis similitudinem in the cinders under a pot of
exta? And when Tanaquil, skilled in the arts of Etruria,9
disturbed these, the gods erected themselves, and became
rigid. She then commanded a captive woman from Corni-

1 Lit., " and the duty of defence itself."

2 i.e. secret rites, to which only the initiated were admitted.

3 Lit., " which you deliver" — tradiiis; so Elmenh., LB., and latter edd.,
for the unintelligible MS. tradidisse, retained in both Roman edd.

4 Lit., " deformity affixed to all." 6 MS. fetamf. Cf. i. 36, n. 1.

6 So Heraldus, from Plutarch, Rom. 21, where Butas is said to have
written on this subject (etltteti) in elegiacs, for the MS. Putas.

7 Lit., " in like manner and with dissimulation."

8 i.e. heart, lungs, and liver, probably of a sacrifice.
0 i.e. " divination, augury," etc.

ARNOB. Q

242 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK v.

culum to learn and understand what was the meaning of
this : Ocrisia, a woman of the greatest wisdom divos inseruisse
genitali, expUcuisse motus certos. Then the holy and burning
deities poured forth the power of Lucilius,1 and [thus] Servius
king of Rome was born,

19. We shall pass by the wild Bacchanalia also, which are
named in Greek Omophagia, in which with seeming frenzy
and the loss of your senses you twine snakes about you ;
and, to show yourselves full of the divinity and majesty of
the god, tear in pieces with gory mouths the flesh of loudly-
bleating goats. Those hidden mysteries of Cyprian Venus
we pass by also, whose founder is said to have been King
Cinyras,2 in which being initiated, they bring stated fees as to
a harlot, and carry away plialli, given as signs of the pro-
pitious deity. Let the rites of the Corybantes also be con-
signed to oblivion, in which is revealed that sacred mystery,
a brother slain by his brothers, parsley sprung from the blood
of the murdered one, that vegetable forbidden to be placed
on tables, lest the manes of the dead should be unappeasably
offended. But those other Bacchanalia also we refuse to pro-
claim, in which there is revealed and taught to the initiated
a secret not to be spoken ; how Liber, when taken up with
boyish sports, was torn asunder by the Titans ; how he was
cut up limb by limb by them also, and thrown into pots
that he might be cooked ; how Jupiter, allured by the sweet
savour, i*ushed unbidden to the meal, and discovering what
had been done, overwhelmed the revellers with his terrible
thunder, and hurled them to the lowest part of Tartarus.
As evidence and proof of which, the Thracian [bard] handed
down in his poems the dice, mirror, tops, hoops, and smooth
balls, and golden apples taken from the virgin Hesperides.

20. It was our purpose to leave unnoticed those mysteries
also into which Phrygia is initiated, and all that 3 race, were
it not that the name of Jupiter, [which has been] introduced
by them, would not suffer us to pass cursorily by the wrongs

1 Vis Lucilii, i.e. semen. 2 Cf. iv. 24.

8 So the MS. and edd., reading gens ilia, for which Memmius proposed
Ilia — *' and all the Trojan race."

BOOKV.] AENOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 2-13

and insults offered to him ; not that we feel any pleasure in
discussing1 mysteries so filthy, but that it may be made clear
to you again and again what wrong you heap upon those
whose guardians, champions, worshippers, you profess to be.
Once upon a time, they say, Diespiter, burning after his
mother Ceres with evil passions and forbidden desires (for
she is said by the natives of that district [to be] Jupiter's
mother), and yet not daring to seek by open 2 force that for
which he had conceived a shameless longing, hits upon a
clever trick by which to rob of her chastity his mother, who
feared nothing of the sort. Instead of a god, he becomes a
bull ; and concealing his purpose and daring under the appear-
ance of a beast lying in wait,3 he rushes madly with sudden
violence upon her, thoughtless and unwitting, obtains his in-
cestuous desires ; and the fraud being disclosed by his lust,
flies off known and discovered. His mother burns, foams,
gasps, boils with fury and indignation ; and being unable to
repress the storm 4 and tempest of her wrath, received the
name Brimo5 thereafter from her ever-raging passion : nor
has she any other wish than to punish as she may her son's
audacity.

21. Jupiter is troubled enough, being overwhelmed with
fear, and cannot find means to soothe the rage of his violated
[mother]. He pours forth prayers, and makes supplication ;
her ears are closed by grief. The whole order of the gods
is sent [to seek his pardon] ; no one has weight enough to
win a hearing. At last, the son seeking how to make satis-
faction, devises this means: Arietem nobilem bene grandibus
cum testiculis deligit, exsecat hos ipse et lanato exuit ex folliculi
tegmine. Approaching his mother sadly and with downcast
looks, and as if by his own decision he had condemned himself,
lie casts and throws these6 into her bosom. When she saw
\\hat his pledge was,7 she is somewhat softened, and allows

1 Lit., "riding upon" — ineqiutare. 2 Lit, " most open."

3 Stibsessoris. 4 Lit., " growling" — -/remit um.

5 The MS. reads primo, emended as above by the brother of Canterus,
followed by later edd.

6 i.e. testiculi. 7 Virililate pignoris visa.

244 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK v.

herself to be recalled to the care of the offspring which she
had conceived.1 After the tenth month she bears a daughter,
of beautiful form, whom later ages have called now Libera,
now Proserpine ; whom when Jupiter Verveceus 2 saw to be
strong, plump, and blooming, forgetting what evils and what
wickedness, and how great recklessness, he had a little before
fallen into,3 he returns to his former practices ; and because
it seemed too4 wicked that a father openly be joined as in
marriage with his daughter, he passes into the terrible form
of a dragon : he winds his huge coils round the terrified
maiden, and under a fierce appearance sports and caresses
[her] in softest embraces. She, too, is in consequence filled
with the seed of the most powerful Jupiter, but not as her
mother [was], for she5 bore a daughter like herself ; but from
the maiden was born something like a bull, to testify to her
seduction by Jupiter. If any one asks6 who narrates this,
then we shall quote the well-known senarian verse of a
Tarentine poet which antiquity sings,7 saying : The bull begot
a dragon, and the dragon a bull. Lastly, the sacred rites them-
selves, and the ceremony of initiation even, named Sebadia,8
might attest the truth ; for in them a golden snake is let down
into the bosom of the initiated, and taken away again from
the lower parts.

1 So Ursinus suggested, followed by Stewechius and later edd., con-
cepti foetus revocatur ad curam; the MS. reads coiicepit — "is softened
and conceived," etc.

2 Jupiter may be here called Verveceus, either as an epithet of Jupiter
Atntnon — " like a wether," or (and this seems most probable from the
context), " dealing with wethers," referring to the mode in which he had
extricated himself from his former difficulty, or "stupid." The MS.
reads virviriccus.

3 Lit., " encountered " — agyressus. 4 Lit., " sufficiently."

5 i.e. Ceres. 6 Lit., " will any one want."

7 i.e. handed down by antiquity.

8 These seem to have been celebrated in honour of Dionysius as well
as Zeus, though, in so far as they are described by Arnobius, they refer
to the intrigue of the latter only. Macrobius, however (Saturn, i. 18),
mentions that in Thrace, Liber and Sol were identified and worshipped
us Sebadius ; and this suggests that we have to take but one more step
to explain the use of the title to Jupiter also.

BOOK v.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 245

22. I do not think it necessary here also with many words
to go through each part, and show how many base and un-
seemly things there are in each particular. For what mortal
is there, with but little sense even of what becomes a man,
who does not himself see clearly the character of all these
things, how wicked [they are], how vile, and what disgrace
is brought upon the gods by the very ceremonies of their
mysteries, and by the unseemly origin of their rites?
Jupiter, it is said, lusted after Ceres. Why, I ask, has
Jupiter deserved so ill of you, that there is no kind of
disgrace, no infamous adultery, which you do not heap upon
his head, as if on some vile and worthless person ? Leda
was unfaithful to her nuptial vow; Jupiter is said to be the
cause of the fault. Danae could not keep her virginity; the
theft is said [to have been] Jupiter's. Europa hastened to
the name of woman ; he is again declared [to have been]
the assailant of her chastity. Alcmena, Electra, Lutoria,
Laodamia, a thousand other virgins, and a thousand matrons,
and with them the boy Catamitus, were robbed of their
honour and1 chastity. It is the same story everywhere —
Jupiter. Nor is there any kind of baseness in which you do
not join and associate his name with passionate lusts ; so that
the wretched being seems to have been born for no other
reason at all except that he might be a field fertile in2 crimes,
an occasion of evil-speaking, a kind of open place into which
should gather all filthiness from the impurities of the stage.3
And yet if you were to say that he had intercourse with
strange women, it would indeed be impious, but the wrong
done in slandering him might be bearable. [But] did he
lust4 after his mother also, after his daughter too, with
furious desires; and could no sacredness in his parent, no

1 Lit., "of."

2 Lit., " that he might be a crop oi"—seges, a correction in the margin
of Ursinus for the MS. sedes — " a seat."

3 So all edd., reading scenarum (MS. wr-, but r marked as spurious),
except LB., followed by Orelli, who gives sentinarum — " of the dregs."
Oliler supplies e, which the sense seems to require.

4 JJt., "neigh with appetites of an enraged breast."

246 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Booic v.

reverence for her, [no] shrinking even from the child which
had sprung from himself, withhold him from conceiving so
detestable a plan ?

23. I should wish, therefore, to see Jupiter, the father of
the gods, who ever controls the world and men,1 adorned
with the horns of an ox, shaking his hairy ears, with his feet
contracted into hoofs, chewing green grass, and [having] be-
hind him2 a tail, hams,3 and ankles smeared over with soft
excrement,4 and bedaubed with the filth cast forth. I should
wish, I say (for it must be said over and over again), to see
him who turns the stars [in their courses], and who terrifies
and overthrows nations pale with fear, pursuing the flocks of
wethers, inspicientem testiculos aretinos, snatching these away
with that severe 5 and divine hand with which he was wont
to launch the gleaming lightnings and to hurl in his rage
the thunderbolt.6 Then, indeed, [I should like to see him]
ransacking their inmost parts with glowing knife ; 7 and all
witnesses being removed, tearing away the membranes cir-
cumjectas prolibus, and bringing them to his mother, still hot
with rage, as a kind of fillet 8 to draw forth her pity, with
downcast countenance, pale, wounded,9 pretending to be in
agony ; and to make this believed, defiled with the blood of
the ram, and covering his pretended wound with bands of
wool and linen. [Is it possible] that this can be heard and
read in this world,10 and that those who discuss these things
wish themselves to be thought pious, holy, and defenders of
religion? Is there any greater sacrilege than this, or can

1 This clearly refers to the ^Eneid, x. 18.

2 Lit., " on the rear part." s Sufragines.

4 So the margin of Ursinus, Elmenh., LB., Oberth., Orelli, and Oehler,
reading mollijimo for the sis. molissimo.

6 Lit, " censorial." 6 Lit., " rage with thunders."

7 So Gelenius, followed by Stewechius arid Orelli, reading smila for
the corrupt and unintelligible MS. nullas.

8 Infulx, besides being worn by the priest, adorned the victim, and
were borne by the suppliant. Perhaps a combination of the two last
ideas is meant to be suggested here.

9 i.e. seemingly so.

10 Lit., " under this axis of the world."

BOOKV.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 247

any mind l be found so imbued with impious ideas as to be-
lieve such stories, or receive them, or hand them down in the
most secret mysteries of the sacred rites ? If that Jupiter
[of whom you speak], whoever he is, really2 existed, or
was affected by any sense of wrong, would it not be fitting
that,3 roused to anger, he should remove the earth from
under our feet, extinguish the light of the sun and moon ;
nay more, that he should throw all things into one mass, as
of old?4

24. But, [my opponent] says, these are not the rites of
our state. Who, pray, says this, or who repeats it? [Is he]
Roman, Gaul, Spaniard, African, German, or Sicilian ? And
what does it avail your cause if these stories are not yours,
while those who compose them are on your side? Or of what
importance is it whether you approve of them or not, since
what you yourselves say5 are found to be either just as foul,
or of even greater baseness ? For do you wish that we should
consider the mysteries and those ceremonies which are named
by the Greeks Thesmophoria,6 in which those holy vigils and
solemn watchings were consecrated [to the goddess] by the
Athenians ? Do you wish us, I say, to see what beginnings
they have, what causes, that we may prove that Athens

1 So the MS., followed by Hild. and Oehler ; the other edd. reading
gens for mens.

2 Lit,, " felt himself to be."

8 Lit., " would the thing not be worthy that angry and roused."

4 i.e. reduce to chaos, in which one thing would not be distinguished
from another, but all be mixed up confusedly.

6 Lit., "what are your proper things."

6 Every one since Salmasius (ad Solinum, p. 750) has supposed Arno-
bius to have here fallen into a gross error, by confounding the Eleusinian
mysteries with the Thesmophoria ; an error the less accountable, because
they are carefully distinguished by Clemens Alexandrinus, whom Arno-
bius evidently had before him, as usual. There seems to be no sufficient
reason, however, for charging Arnobius with such a blunder, although
in the end of ch. 26 he refers to the story just related, as showing the
base character of the Eleusinia (Eleusinionim vestrorum notas) ; as he
here speaks of mysteria (i.e. Eleusinia, cf. Nepos, Ale. 3, 16) et ilia
divina quas Thesmophoria nominantur a Griecis. It should be re-
membered also that there was much in common between these mys-

248 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Booic v.

itself also, distinguished in the arts and pursuits of civilisa-
tion, says things as insulting to the gods as others, and that
stories are there publicly related under the mask of religion
just as disgraceful as are thrown in [our] way by the rest of
you? Once, they say, when Proserpine, not yet a woman
and still a maiden, was gathering purple flowers in the
meadows of Sicily, and when her eagerness to gather them
was leading her hither and thither in all directions, the king
of the shades, springing forth through an opening of unknown
depth, seizes and bears away with him the maiden, and con-
ceals himself again in the bowels l of the earth. Now when
Ceres did not know what had happened, and had no idea
where in the world her daughter was, she set herself to seek
the lost one all over the2 world. She snatches up two
torches lit at the fires of JEtna ;3 and giving herself light by
means of these, goes on her quest in all parts of the earth.

25. In her wanderings on that quest, she reaches the
confines of Eleusis as well as other countries4 — that is the
name of a canton in Attica. At that time these parts were
inhabited by aborigines5 named Baubo, Triptolemus, Eubu-
leus, Eumolpus,6 Dysaules : Triptolemus, who yoked oxen ;

teries : the story of Ceres' wanderings was the subject of both ; in
both there was a season of fasting to recall her sadness ; both had
indecent allusions to the way in which that sadness was dispelled ; and
both celebrated with some freedom the recovery of cheerfulness by the
goddess, the great distinguishing feature of the Thesmophoria being that
only women could take part in its rites. Now, as it is to the points in
which the two sets of mysteries were at one that allusion is made in the
passage which follows, it was only natural that Arnobius should not be
very careful to distinguish the one from the other, seeing that he was
concerned not with their differences, but with their coincidence. It seems
difficult, therefore, to maintain that Arnobius has here convicted him-
self of so utter ignorance and so gross carelessness as his critics have
imngined.

1 Lit., "caverns." 2 Lit., "in the whole."

3 The MS. is utterly corrupt — flammis onere pressas etneis, corrected as
above by Gelenius from c. 35, f. comprehensas. — JEii,.

4 Lit., " also." c Lit., " [they were] earth-born who inhabited."
6 The MS. wants this name; but it has evidently been omitted by acci-
dent, as it occurs in the next line.

BOOKV.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 249

Dysaules, a keeper of goats ; Eubuleus, of swine ; Eumolpus,
of sheep,1 from whom also flows the race of Eumolpidae, and
[from whom] is derived that name famous among the Athe-
nians,2 and those who afterwards flourished as caduceatores*
hierophants, and criers. So, then, that Baubo who, we have
said, dwelt in the canton of Eleusis, receives hospitably
Ceres, worn out with ills of many kinds, hangs about her
with pleasing attentions, beseeches her not to neglect to re-
fresh her body, brings to quench her thirst wine thickened
with spelt,4 which the Greeks term cyceon. The goddess in
her sorrow turns away from the kindly offered services,5 and
rejects [them] ; nor does her misfortune suffer her to remem-
ber what the body always requires.6 Baubo, on the other
hand, begs and exhorts her — as is usual in such calamities —
not to despise her humanity ; Ceres remains utterly immove-
able, and tenaciously maintains an invincible austerity. But
when this was done several times, and her fixed purpose
could not be worn out by any attentions, Baubo changes her
plans, and determines to make merry by strange jests her
whom she could not win by earnestness. That part of the
body by which women both bear children and obtain the
name of mothers,7 this she frees from longer neglect : she
makes it assume a purer appearance, and become smooth
like a child, not yet hard and rough with hair. In this wise
she returns 8 to the sorrowing goddess ; and while trying the
common expedients by which it is usual to break the force of
grief, and moderate it, she uncovers herself, and baring her

1 Lit., "of woolly flock." 2 Cecropios et qui.

3 i.e. staff-bearers.

4 Cinnus, the chief ingredients, according to Hesychius (quoted by
Oehler), being wine, honey, water, and spelt or barley.

5 Lit., "offices of humanity."

c Lit., " common health." Arnobius is here utterly forgetful of Ceres'
divinity, and subjects her to the invariable requirements of nature, from
winch the divine might be supposed to be exempt.

7 So the conjecture of Liviueius, adopted by Oehler, gene-t-ricum for
the MS. genericum.

8 So Stewechius, followed by Oehler, reading redit ita for the MS. red'
ita ,• the other edd. merely drop a.

250 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK v

groins, displays all the parts which decency hides j1 and then
the goddess fixes her eyes upon these,2 and is pleased with
the strange form of consolation. Then becoming more cheer-
ful after laughing, she takes and drinks off the draught
spurned [before], and the indecency of a shameless action
forced that which Baubo's modest conduct was long unable
to win.

26. If any one perchance thinks that we are speaking
wicked calumnies, let him take the books of the Thracian
soothsayer,3 which you speak of as of divine antiquity ; and
he will find that we are neither cunningly inventing any-
thing, nor seeking means to bring the holiness of the gods
into ridicule, and doing so : for we shall bring forward the
very verses which the son of Calliope uttered in Greek,4 and
published abroad in his songs to the human race throughout
all ages :

" With these words she at the same time drew up her garments from

the lowest [hem],

And exposed to \\ewformatas inguinilus res,
Which Baubo grasping 5 with hollow hand, for
Their appearance was infantile, strikes, touches gently.
Then the goddess, fixing her orbs of august light,
Being softened, lays aside for a little the sadness of her mind ;
Thereafter she takes the cup in her hand, and laughing,
Drinks off the whole draught of cyceon with gladness." °

1 Omnia ilia pudoris loca. 2 Piibi.

8 Orpheus, under whose name there was current in the time of
Arnobius an immense mass of literature freely used, and it is probable
sometimes supplemented, by Christian writers. Cf. c. 19.

4 Lit., "put forth with Greek mouth." 5 Lit., "tossing."

6 It may be well to observe that Arnobius differs from the Greek ver-
sions of these lines found in Clem. Alex. (Protrept. p. 17) and Eusebiua
(Prtepar. Ecang. ii. 3), omitting all mention of lacchus, who is made
very prominent by them ; and that he does not adhere strictly to
metrical rules, probably, as Heraldus pointed out, because, like the poets
of that age, he paid little heed to questions of quantity. Whether
Arnobius has merely paraphrased the original as found in Clement and
Eusebius, or had a different version of them before him, is a question
which can only be discussed by means of a careful comparison between
the Greek and Latin forms of the verses with the context in both cases.

BOOKV.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 2nl

What say yon, O wise sons of Erectheus ? l what, you citizen?
of Minerva ? 2 The mind is eager to know with what words
you will defend what it is so dangerous to maintain, or what
arts you have by which to give safety to personages and
causes wounded so mortally. This 3 is no false mistrust, nor
are you assailed with lying accusations : 4 the infamy of your
Eleusinia is declared both by their base beginnings and by
the records of ancient literature, by the very signs, in fine,
which you use when questioned in receiving the sacred
things, — 7 have fasted, and drunk the draught;5 I have taken
out of the [mystic] cist,& and put into the wicker-basket ; I
have received again, and transferred to the little chest.

27. Are then your deities carried off by force, and do they
seize by violence, as their holy and hidden mysteries relate ?
do they enter into marriages sought stealthily and by fraud?7
is their honour snatched from virgins 8 resisting and unwill-
ing? have they no knowledge of impending injury, no ac-
quaintance with what has happened to those carried off by
force ? Are they, when lost, sought for as men are ? and do
they traverse the earth's vast extent with lamps and torches
when the sun is shining most brightly ? Are they afflicted ?
are they troubled? do they assume the squalid garments of
mourners, and the signs of misery ? and that they may be able
to turn their mind to victuals and the taking of food, is use
made not of reason, not of the right time, not of some weighty
words or pressing courtesy, but is a display made of the
shameful and indecent parts of the body? and are those
members exposed which the shame felt by all, and the natural
law of modesty, bid us conceal, which it is not permissible to

1 So LB., Hild., and Oehler, reading Erechthidse 0 (inserted by Hild.)
for the MS. erithideo.

2 i.e. Athenians.

8 The MS., 1st ed., Hild., and Oehler read ita — " It is thus not," etc. ;
the others as above, ista.

* Delatione calumniosa. 5 Cyceon.

6 The MS. reads exci-la, corrected as above, ex cista, in the margin of
Ursinus.

7 Lit., " by stealthy frauds."

8 Lit., " is the honour of virginity snatched from them '?''*

252 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK v.

name among pure ears without permission, and saying, " by
your leave ? " l What, I ask you, was there in such a sight,2
what in the privy parts of Baubo, to move to wonder and
laughter a goddess of the same sex, and formed with similar
parts ? what was there such that, when presented to the
divine eyes3 and sight, it should at the same time enable her
to forget her miseries, and bring her with sudden cheerfulness
to a happier state of mind ? Oh, what have we had it in our
power to bring forward with scoffing and jeering, were it not
for respect for the reader,4 and the dignity of literature !

28. I confess that I have long been hesitating, looking on
every side, shuffling, doubling Tellene perplexities;0 while I
am ashamed to mention those Alimontian 6 mysteries in which
Greece erects phalli in honour of father Bacchus, and the
whole district is covered with images of men's fascina. The
meaning of this is obscure perhaps, and it is asked why it is
done. Whoever is ignorant of this, let him learn, and,
wondering at what is so important, ever keep it with reverent
care in a pure heart.7 While Liber, born at Nysa,8 and son
of Semele, was still among men, the story goes, he wished to
become acquainted with the shades below, and to inquire into
what went on in Tartarus; but this wish was hindered by some
difficulties, because, from ignorance of the route, he did not

1 Sine venid ac sine honoribus prssfatis.

2 So Stewechius, LB., and Orelli, reading spec-t-u in t-ali for the MS.
in specu ali.

3 Lit., " light." 4 So the sis., Hild., and Oehler, reading nosccntis.

5 This allusion is somewhat obscure. Heraldus regards tricas Telknas
as akin in sense to t. Atellanas, i.e. " comic trifles ; " in which case the
sense would be, that Arnobius had been heaping up any trifles which
would keep him back from the disagreeable subject. Ausonius Popma
(quoted by Orelli) explains the phrase with reference to the capture of
Tellense by Ancus Martins as meaning " something hard to get through."

6 The MS. reads alimonise, corrected from Clem. Alex, by Salmasius,
Alhuontia, i.e. celebrated at Halimus in Attica.

7 Lit., " in pure senses."

8 Cicero (de Nat. Deor. iii. 23) speaks of five Dionysi. the father of
the fifth being Nisus. Arnobius had this passage before him in writing
the fourth book (cf. c. 15, and n. 2), so that he may here mean to speak
of Liber similarly.

BOOK v.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 253

know by wliat way to go and proceed. One Prosumnus starts
up, a base lover of the god, and [a fellow] too prone to wicked
lusts, who promises to point out the gate of Dis, and the ap-
proaches to Acheron, if the god will gratify him, and suffer
uxorias voluptates ex se carpi. The tjod, without reluctance,
swears to put himself l in his power and at his disposal, but
[only] immediately on his return from the lower regions,
having obtained his wish and desire.2 Prosumnus politely
tells him the way, and sets him on the very threshold of the
lower regions. In the meantime, while Liber is inspecting3
and examining carefully Styx, Cerberus, the Furies, and all
other things, the informer passed from the number of the
living, and was buried according to the manner of men.
Evius4 comes up from the lower regions, and learns that his
guide is dead. But that he might fulfil his promise, and
free himself from the obligation of his oath, he goes to the
place of the funeral, and Jicorum ex arbore ramum validis-
simum prcesecans dolat, funcinat, levigat et humani speciem
fabricatur in penis, figit super aggerem tumuli, et posticd ex
parte nudatus accedit, subsidit, insidit. Lascivia deinde
surientis assumptd, hue atque illuc dunes torquet et meditatur
ab ligno pati quod jamdudum in veritate promiserat.

29. Now, to prevent any one from thinking that we have
devised what is so impious, we do not call upon him to
believe Heraclitus as a witness, nor to receive from his
account what he felt about such mysteries. Let him 5 ask
the whole of Greece what is the meaning of these phalli
which ancient custom erects and worships throughout the
country, throughout the towns : he will find that the causes
are those which we say ; or if they are ashamed to declare
the truth honestly, of what avail will it be to obscure, to
conceal the cause and origin of the rite, while6 the accusa-
tion holds good against the very act of worship ? What say

1 Lit., " that he will bo."

8 So the MS., ace. to Hild., reading expe-titionis ; ace. to Crusius, the
MS. gives -ditionis — " [having accomplished] his expedition."

3 Lit., " is surveying with all careful examination."

4 MS. cuius. 5 i.e. the sceptic. 6 Cum wanting in the us.

254 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK v.

you, 0 peoples ? what, ye nations busied with the services of
the temples, and given up [to them] ? Is it to these rites
you drive us by flames, banishment, slaughter, and any
other kind of punishments, and by fear of cruel torture ?
Are these the gods whom you bring to us, whom you thrust
and impose upon us, like whom you would neither wish your-
selves to be, nor any one related to you by blood and friend-
ship? l Can you declare to your beardless sons, still wearing
the dress of boys, the agreements which Liber formed with
his lovers ? Can you urge your daughters-in-law, nay, even
your own wives, to [show] the modesty of Baubo, and [enjoy]
the chaste pleasures of Ceres? Do you wish your young
men to know, hear, [and] learn what even Jupiter showed
himself to more matrons than one ? Would you wish your
grown-up maidens and still lusty fathers to learn how the same
deity sported with his daughter ? Do you wish full brothers,
already hot with passion, and sisters sprung from the same
parents, to hear that he again did not spurn the embraces,
the couch of his sister? Should we not then flee far from
such gods; and should not our ears be stopped altogether,
that the filthiness of so impure a religion may not creep into
the mind? For what man is there who has been reared
with morals so pure, that the example of the gods does
not excite him to similar madness ? or who can keep back
his desires from his kinsfolk, and those of whom he should
stand in awe, when he sees that among the gods above
nothing is held sacred in the confusion caused by2 their
lusts'? For when it is certain that the first and perfect
nature has not been able to restrain its passion within right
limits, why should not man give himself up to his desires
without distinction, being both borne on headlong by his
innate frailty, and aided by the teaching of the holy deities?3

1 Lit., " by right of friendship." 2 Lit., " of."

3 Lit., " of holy divinity." Orelli thinks, and with reason, that
Arnobius refers to the words which Terence puts into the mouth of
Chaerea (Eun. iii. v. vv. 36-43), who encourages himself to give way
to lust by asking, " Shall I, a man, not do this ? " when Jove had done
as much.

BOOKV.] ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 255

30. I confess that, in reflecting on such monstrous stories
in my own mind, I have long been accustomed to wonder
that you dare to speak of those as atheists,1 impious, sacri-
legious, who either deny that there are [any] gods at all, or
doubt [their existence], or assert that they were men, and
have been numbered among the gods for the sake of some
power and good desert ; since, if a true examination be made,
it is fitting that none should be called by such names, more
than yourselves, who, under the pretence of showing them
reverence, heap up in so doing2 more abuse and accusation,
than if you had conceived the idea of doing this openly with
avowed abuse. He who doubts the existence of the gods, or
denies it altogether, although he may seem to adopt monstrous
opinions from the audacity of his conjectures, yet refuses to
credit what is obscure without insulting any one ; and he
who asserts that they were mortals, although he brings them
down from the exalted place of inhabitants of heaven, yet
heaps upon them other3 honours, since he supposes that they
have been raised to the rank of the gods4 for their services,
and from admiration of their virtues.

31. But you who assert that you are the defenders and
propagators of their immortality, have you passed by, have you
left untouched, any one of them, without assailing him5 with
your abuse ? or is there any kind of insult so damnable in the
eyes of all, that you have been afraid to use it upon them,
even though hindered6 by the dignity of their name ? Who
declared that the gods loved frail and mortal bodies ? [was it]
not you? Who that they perpetrated those most charming
thefts on the couches of others ? [was it] not you ? Who
that children had intercourse with their mothers; [and] on
the other hand, fathers with their virgin daughters? [was it]

1 Lit., " to speak of any one as atheist ... of those who," etc.

2 So the MS. and edd., reading in «o, for which we should perhaps read
f» eos — " heap upon them."

3 Subsicivis laudibus.

4 Lit., " to the reward (merituni) of divinity."
6 Lit., "un wounded."

6 So the edd., reading tardati for the MS. tradatis, except Hild., who
reads tardatis.

256 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK v.

not you ? Who that pretty boys, and even grown-up [men]
of very fine appearance, were wrongfully lusted after? [was
it] not you? Who [declared that they1 were] mutilated,
debauched,2 skilled in dissimulation, thieves, held in bonds
and chains, finally assailed with thunderbolts, [and] wounded,
that they died, [and] even found graves on earth ? [was it]
not you ? While, then, so many and grievous charges have
been raised by you to the injury of the gods, do you dare to
assert that the gods have been displeased because of us, while
it has long been clear that you are the guilty causes of such
anger, and the occasion of the divine wrath ?

32. But you err, says [my opponent], and are mistaken,
and show, even in criticising [these] things, that you are
rather ignorant, unlearned, and boorish. For all those
stories which seem to you disgraceful, and tending to the
discredit of the gods, contain in them holy mysteries, theories
•wonderful and profound, and not such as any one can easily
become acquainted with by force of understanding. For
that is not meant and said which has been written and placed
on the surface of the story ; but all these things are under-
stood in allegorical senses, and by means of secret explana-
tions privately supplied.3 Therefore he who says 4 Jupiter lay
with his mother, does not mean the incestuous or shameful
embraces of Venus, but names Jupiter instead of rain, and
Ceres instead of the earth. And he, again, who says that
he5 dealt lasciviously with his daughter, speaks of no filthy
pleasures, but puts Jupiter for the name of a shower, and by
his daughter means6 the crop sown. So, too, he who says
that Proserpina was carried off by father Dis, does not
say (as you suppose7) that the maiden was carried off to
[gratify] the basest desires ; but because we cover the seed
with clods, he signifies that the goddess has sunk under the

1 i.e. the gods. 2 Exoktos. Cf. iv. c. 35, n. 3.

3 Subditivis secretis.

4 Both Romaii edd. and MS. read dicet — "shall say;" all others as
above — dicit.

5 i.e. Jupiter. 6 Lit., " in the signification of his daughter."
7 So the margin of Ursinus — ut reris for the us. ut ce-reris.

BOOKV.J ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 257

earth, and unites with Orcus to bring forth fruit. In like
manner in the other stories also one thing indeed is said, but
something else is understood ; and under a commonplace
openness of expression there lurks a secret doctrine, and a
dark profundity of mystery.

33. These are all quirks, as is evident, and quibbles with
which they are wont to bolster up weak cases before a jury ;
nay, rather, to speak more truly, they are pretences, such as
are used in J sophistical reasonings, by which not the truth
is sought after, but always the image, and appearance, and
shadow of the truth. For because it is shameful and unbe-
coming to receive as true the correct accounts, you have had
recourse2 to this expedient, that one thing should be substi-
tuted for another, and that what was in itself shameful should,
in being explained, be forced into the semblance of decency.
But what is it to us whether other senses and other meanings
underlie [these] vain stories ? For we who assert that the
gods are treated by you wickedly and impiously, need only 3
receive what is written, what is said,4 and need not care as to
what is kept secret, since the insult to the deities consists not
in the idea hidden in its meanings,5 but in what is signified
by the words as they stand out. And yet, that we may not
seem unwilling to examine what you say, we ask this first of
you, if only you will bear with us, from whom have you
learned, or by whom has it been made known, either that
these things were written allegorically, or that they should
be understood in the same way 1 Did the writers summon
you to [take] counsel [with them] ? or did you lie hid in
their bosoms at the time6 when they put one thing for
another, without regard to truth ? Then, if they chose, from

1 Lit., " colours of."

2 The us. and both Roman edd. read indecorum est, which leaves the
sentence incomplete. LB., followed by later edd., proposed decursum
est, as above (Oehler, inde d. — "from these recourse has been had"),
the other conjectures tending to the same meaning.

8 " We need only ; " lit., " it is enough for us to."

4 Lit., " heard."

5 Lit., " in the obscure mind of senses."

* u Or at the time," out turn, the correction of LB. for the MS. sutum.
ARNOB. K

258 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK v.

religious awe1 and fear on any account, to wrap those
mysteries in dark obscurity, what audacity it shows in you
to wish to understand what they did not wish, to know your-
selves and make all acquainted with that which they vainly
attempted to conceal by words which did not suggest the truth !

34. But, agreeing with you that in all these stories stags
are spoken of instead of Iphigenias, yet, how are you sure,
when you either explain or unfold these allegories, that you
give the same explanations or have the same ideas which
were entertained by the writers themselves in the silence of
their thoughts, but expressed by words not adapted2 to what
was meant, but to something else ? You say that the falling
of rain into the bosom of the earth was spoken of as the
union of Jupiter and Ceres ; another may both devise with
greater subtlety, and conjecture with some probability, some-
thing else ; a third, a fourth may [do the same] ; and as the
characteristics of the minds of the thinkers show themselves,
so each thing may be explained in an infinite number of
ways. For since all that allegory, as it is called, is taken
from narratives expressly made obscure,3 and has no certain
limit within which the meaning of 'the story,4 as it is called,
should be firmly fixed and unchangeable, it is open to every
one to put the meaning into it which he pleases, and to assert
that that has been adopted5 to which his thoughts and
surmises6 led him. But this being the case, how can you
obtain certainty from what is doubtful, and attach one sense
only to an expression which you see to be explained in in-
numerable different ways ? 7

35. Finally, if you think it right, returning to our inquiry,
we ask this of you, whether you think that all stories about
the gods,8 that is, without any exception,9 have been written

1 Lit., " fear of any reason and of religion." 2 Lit., "proper."

3 Lit., " from shut up things." * Rei. 6 Lit., " placed."

6 Lit., "his suspicion and conjectural (perhaps "probable") inference."

7 Lit., "to be deduced with variety of expositions through numberless
ways."

8 The MS., first four edd., and Hild. read de his—" about these," cor-
rected in the others dis or diis, as above.

*Lit., "each."

BOOKV.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 259

throughout with a double meaning and sense, and in a way1
admitting of several interpretations; or that some parts of
them are not ambiguous at all, [while], on the contrary,
others have many meanings, and are enveloped in the veil of
allegory which has been thrown round them f For if the
whole structure and arrangement of the narrative have been
surrounded with a veil of allegory from beginning to end,
explain [to us], tell [us] what we should put and substitute
for each thing which every story says, and to what other
things and meanings we should refer2 each. For as, to take
an example, you wish Jupiter to be said instead of the rain,
Ceres for the earth, and for Libera3 and father Dis the sink-
ing and casting of seed [into the earth], so you ought to say
what we should understand for the bull, what for the wratli
and anger of Ceres; what the word Brimo* means; what
the anxious prayer of Jupiter ; what the gods sent to make
intercession for him, but not listened to ; what the castrated
ram ; what the parts 5 of the castrated ram ; what the satis-
faction made with these ; what the further dealings with his
daughter, still more unseemly in their lustfulness ; so, in the
other story also, what the grove and flowers of Henna are ;
what the fire taken from ^Etna, and the torches lit with
it ; what the travelling through the world with these ; what
the Attic country, the canton of Eleusin, the hut of Baubo,
and her rustic hospitality ; what the draught of cyceon
means, the refusal of it, the shaving and disclosure of the
jjrivy parts, the shameful charm of the sight, and the forget-
fulness of her bereavement produced by such means. Now,
if you point out what should be put in the place of all these,
changing the one for the other,6 we shall admit your assertion ;

i PI. 2 Lit., " call."

3 i.e. Proserpine. The readiness with which Arnobius breaks the form
of the sentence should be noted. At first the gods represent physical
phenomena, but immediately after natural events are put for the gods.
In the MS. two copyists have been at work, the earlier giving Libero, which
is rather out of place, and is accordingly corrected by the later, Libera,
followed by LB., Oberthur, Orelli, Hild., and Oehler.

4 The MS. reads primo. Cf. c. 20. * Proles.
• Lit., " by change of things."

260 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK v.

but if you can neither present another supposition in each
case, nor appeal to1 the context as a whole, why do you make
that obscure,2 by means of fair-seeming allegories, which has
been spoken plainly, and disclosed to the understanding of all ?
36. But you will perhaps say that these allegories are not
[found] in the whole body of the story, but that some parts
are written so as to be understood by all, while others have
a double meaning, and are veiled in ambiguity. That is
refined subtlety, and can be seen through by the dullest.
For because it is very difficult for you to transpose, reverse,
and divert [to other meanings] all that has been said, you
choose out some things which suit your purpose, and by
means of these you strive to maintain that false and spuri-
ous versions were thrown about the truth which is under
them.3 But yet, supposing that we should grant to you that
it is just as you say, how do you know, or whence do you
learn, which part of the story is written without any double
meaning,4 which, on the other hand, has been covered with
jarring and alien senses ? For it may be that what you
believe to be so5 is otherwise, that what you believe to be
otherwise6 has been produced with different, and [even]
opposite modes of expression. For where, in a consistent
whole, one part is said to be written allegorically, the other
in plain and trustworthy language, while there is no sign
in the thing itself to point out the difference between what
is said ambiguously and what is said simply, that which is
simple may as well be thought to have a double meaning,
as what has been written ambiguously be believed to be
wrapt in obscurity.7 But, indeed, we confess that we do
not understand at all by whom this 8 is either done, or can
be believed to be possible.

1 The MS. omits orf, supplied by Ursinus.

2 So all edd., except Hild. and Oehler, reading dbscur-atis for the MS.
-itatibus.

3 Lit., " were placed above the interior truth."

4 Lit., " with simple senses." 5 i.e. involved in obscurity.

6 i.e, free from ambiguity. 7 Lit., " of shut off obscurities."

8 The reference is to the words in the middle of the chapter, " how do

BOOK v.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 261

37. Let us examine, then, what is said in this way. In
the grove of Henna, my opponent says, the maiden Proser-
pine was once gathering flowers : this is as yet uncorrupted,
and has been told in a straightforward manner, for all know
without any doubt what a grove and flowers are, what Pro-
serpine is, and a maiden. Summanus sprung forth from
the earth, borne along in a four-horse chariot : this, too,
is just as simple, for a team of four horses, a chariot, and
Summanus need no interpreter. Suddenly he carried off
Proserpine, and bore her with himself under the earth : the
burying of the seed, my opponent says, is meant by the
rape of Proserpine. What has happened, pray, that the story
should be suddenly turned to something else ? that Proserpine
should be called the seed ? that she who was for a long
time held to be a maiden gathering flowers, after that she
was taken away and carried off by violence, should begin to
signify the seed sown ? Jupiter, my opponent says, having
turned himself into a bull, longed to have intercourse with his
mother Ceres : as was explained before, under these names
the earth and falling rain are spoken of. I see the law of
allegory expressed in the dark and ambiguous terms. Ceres
was enraged and angry, and received the parts1 of a ram
as the penalty demanded by2 vengeance : this again I see
to be expressed in common language, for both anger and
testes [and] satisfaction are spoken of in their usual circum-
stances.3 What, then, happened here, — that from Jupiter,
who was named [for] the rain, and Ceres, who was named
[for] the earth, the story passed to the true Jove, and to a
most straightforward account of events ?

38. Either, then, they must all have been written and put
forward allegorically, and the whole should be pointed out to
us ; or nothing has been so written, since what is supposed
to be [allegorical] does not seem as if it were part of the nar-

you know which part is simple? " etc. ; Arnobius now saying that he
does not see how this can be known.

1 Proks.

2 Lit., " for penalty and."

8 Lit., " in their customs and conditions.**

2G2 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boor; v.

rative.1 These are all written allegorically, [you say]. This
seems by no means certain. Do you ask for what reason,
for what cause ? Because [I answer] all that has taken
place and has been set down distinctly in any book cannot
be turned into an allegory, for neither can that be undone
which has been done, nor can the character of an event
change into one which is utterly different. Can the Trojan
war be turned into the condemnation of Socrates ? or the
battle of Cannse become the cruel proscription of Sulla? A
proscription may indeed, as Tullius says2 in jest, be spoken
of as a battle, and be called that of Cannae ; but what has
already taken place, cannot be at the same time a battle and
a proscription ; for neither, as I have said, can that which
lias taken place be anything else than what has taken
place ; nor can that pass over into a substance foreign to it
which has been fixed down firmly in its own nature and
peculiar condition.

39. Whence, then, do we prove that all these narratives
are records of events ? From the solemn rites and mysteries
of initiation, it is clear, whether those which are celebrated
at fixed times and on set days, or those which are taught
secretly by the heathen without allowing the observance of
their usages to be interrupted. For it is not to be believed
that these have no origin, are practised without reason or
meaning, and have no causes connected with their first be-
ginnings. That pine which is regularly borne into the
sanctuary of the Great Mother,3 is it not in imitation of that
tree beneath which Attis mutilated and unmanned himself,
which also, they relate, the goddess consecrated to relieve
her grief ? That erecting of phalli and/asa'na, which Greece
worships and celebrates in rites every year, does it not recall
the deed by which Liber4 paid his debt ? Of what do those

1 i.e. if historical, the whole must be so, as bits of allegory would not fi t in.

2 Cicero, pro Rose. Am. c. 32.

3 The MS. and edd. read matris deae — " of the mother goddess ;" for
which Meursius proposed deurn — " mother of the gods," the usual form
of the title. Cf. cc. 7 and 16.

1 The name is wanting in the MS. Cf. c. 28.

BOOK v.J ARNOB1US ADVERSUS GENTES. 263

Eleusinian mysteries and secret rites contain a narrative?
Is it not of that wandering in which Ceres, worn out in
seeking for her daughter, when she came to the confines of
Attica, brought wheat [with her], graced with a hind's skin
the family of the Nebridas,1 and laughed at that most won-
derful sight in Baubo's groins ? Or if there is another cause,
that is nothing to us, so long as they are all produced
by [some] cause. For it is not credible that these things
were set on foot without being preceded by any causes, or
the inhabitants of Attica must be considered mad to have
received2 a religious ceremony got up without any reason.
But if this is clear and certain, that is, if the causes and
origins of the mysteries are traceable to past events, by no
change can they be turned into the figures of allegory ; for
that which has been done, [which] has taken place, cannot,
in the nature of things, be undone.8

40. And yet, even if we grant you that this is the case,
that is, even if the narratives give utterance to one thing in
words, [but] mean4 something else, after the manner of
raving seers, do you not observe in this case, do you not see
how dishonouring, how insulting to the gods, this is which is
said to be done ? 5 or can any greater wrong be devised than
to term and call the earth and rain, or anything else (for it
does not matter what change is made in the interpretation),
the intercourse of Jupiter and Ceres ? and to signify the
descent of rain from the sky, and the moistening of the
earth, by charges against the gods 1 Can anything be either

1 No Attic family of this name is mentioned anywhere ; but in Cos
the Nebridse were famous as descendants of ^Esculapius through Nebros.
In Attica, on the other hand, the initiated were robed in fawn-skins
(j/£/3jS/<$£f), and were on this account spoken of as vefipifyires. Sal-
masius has therefore suggested (ad Solinum, p. 864, E) that Arnobius,
or the author on whom he relied, transferred the family to Attica oil
account of the similarity of sound.

2 Lit, " who have attached to themselves."

8 Arnobius would seem to have been partial to this phrase, which
occurs in the middle of c. 38.
4 Lit., " say."
6 Lit., " with what shame and insult of the gods this is said to be done."

264 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK v.

thought or believed more impious than that the rape of
Proserpine speaks of seeds buried in the earth, or anything
else (for in like manner it is of no importance), and that it
speaks of the pursuit of agriculture to1 the dishonour of
father Dis ? Is it not a thousand times more desirable to
become mute and speechless, and to lose that flow of words
and noisy and 2 unseemly loquacity, than to call the basest
things by the names of the gods; nay, more, to signify
commonplace things by the base actions of the gods ?

41. It was once usual, in speaking allegorically, to conceal
under perfectly decent ideas, and clothe3 with the respect-
ability of decency, what was base and horrible to speak of
openly ; but now venerable things are at your instance
vilely spoken of, and what is quite pure4 is related5 in filthy
language, so that that which vice6 formerly concealed from
shame, is now meanly and basely spoken of, the mode of speech
which was fitting7 being changed. In speaking of Mars
and Venus as having been taken in adultery by Vulcan's art,
we speak of lust, says [my opponent], and anger, as restrained
by the force and purpose of reason. What, then, hindered,
what prevented you from expressing each thing by the words
and terms proper to it? nay, more, what necessity was there,
when you had resolved 8 to declare something or other, by
means of treatises and writings, to resolve that that should
not be the meaning to which you point, and in one narrative
to take up at the same time opposite positions — the eagerness
of one wishing to teach, the niggardliness of one reluctant to
make public 1 9 Was there no risk in speaking of the gods

1 Lit., " with." " Lit., » din of."

8 Passive. * Lit., " strong in chastity."

6 The MS., first three edd., Elm., and Oehler read commorantur —
"lingers," i.e. "continues to be spoken of;" the other edd. receive
commemorantur, as above, from the errata in the 1st ed.

6 The MS., first four edd., and Oehler read gravitas — seriousness ; cor-
rected pr. as above, in all edd. after Stewechius.

7 So, perhaps, the unintelligible MS. diynorum should be emended
digna rerum.

8 So all edd. since Stewechius, adding s to the MS. voluisse.

9 i.e. the mere fact that the stories were published, showed a wish to

BOOKV.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 265

as unchaste ? The mention of lust and anger, [my opponent
says], was likely to defile the tongue and mouth with foul
contagion.1 But, assuredly, if this were done,2 and the veil
of allegorical obscurity were removed, the matter would be
easily understood, and at the same the dignity of the gods
would be maintained unimpaired. But now, indeed, when
the restraining of vices is said to be signified by the binding
of Mars and Venus, two most inconsistent3 things are done
at the very same time ; so that, on the one hand, a description
of something vile suggests an honourable meaning, and on
the other, the baseness occupies the mind before any regard
for religion can do so.

42. But you will perhaps say (for this only is left which
you may think4 can be brought forward by you) that the
gods do not wish their mysteries to be known by men, and
that the narratives were therefore written with allegorical
ambiguity. And whence have you learned 5 that the gods
above do not wish their mysteries to be made public"? whence
have you become acquainted with these? or why are you
anxious to unravel them by explaining them as allegories ?
Lastly, and finally, what do the gods mean, that while they
do not wish honourable, they allow unseemly, even the basest
things, to be said about them ? When we name Attis, says
[my opponent], we mean and speak of the sun ; but if Attis
is the sun, as you reckon [him] and say, who will that Attis
be whom your books record and declare to have been born
in Phrygia, to have suffered certain things, to have done
certain things also, whom all the theatres know in the scenic
shows, to whom every year we see divine honours paid
expressly byname amongst the [other] religious ceremonies?
Whether was this name made to pass from the sun to a man,

teach ; but their being allegories, showed a reluctance to allow them to
be understood.

1 The edd. read this sentence interrogatively.

2 i.e. " if you said exactly what you mean." The reference is not to
the immediately preceding words, but to the question on which thtj
chapter is based — " what prevented you from expressing," etc.

3 Lit., " perverse." * Passive. 6 Lit., uis it clear to you."

266 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK v.

or from a man to the sun ? For if that name is derived
in the first instance from the sun, what, pray, has the golden
sun done to you, that you should make that name to belong
to him in common with an emasculated person ? But if
it is [derived] from a goat, and is Phrygian, of what has
the sire of Phaethon, the father of this light and bright-
ness, been guilty, that he should seem worthy to be
named from a mutilated man, and should become more
venerable when designated by the name of an emasculated
body ?

43. But what the meaning of this is, is already clear to
all. For because you are ashamed of such writers and
histories, and do not see that these things can be got rid of
which have once been committed to writing in filthy lan-
guage, you strive to make base things honourable, and by
every kind of subtlety you pervert and corrupt the real
senses l of words for the sake of spurious interpretations ; 2
and, as ofttimes happens to the sick, whose senses and under-
standing have been put to flight by the distempered force
of disease, you toss about confused and uncertain [con-
jectures], and rave in empty fictions.

Let it be [granted] that the irrigation of the earth was
meant by the union of Jupiter and Ceres, the burying of
the seed3 by the ravishing [of Proserpine] by father Dis,
wines scattered over the earth by the limbs of Liber torn
asunder [by the Titans], that the restraining4 of lust and
rashness has been spoken of as the binding of the adulterous
Venus and Mars.

44. But if you come to the conclusion that these fables
have been written allegorically, what is to be done with the
rest, which we see cannot be forced into such changes [of
sense] ? For what are we to substitute for the wrigglings 5

1 Lit., " natures." 2 Lit,, " things."

8 So most edd., reading occullatio for the MS. occupatio.

4 So all edd., reading com-, except Hild. and Oehler, who retain the
MS. reading, im-pressio — " the assault of," i.e. " on."

5 Lit., " waves "—fluctibus, the reading of the MS., LB., Hild., and
Ochlcr ; the other edd. reading fustibus — " stakes."

BOOKV.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 267

into which the lustful heat1 of Semele's offspring forced him
upon the sepulchral mound? and what for those Gany-
medes who were carried off 2 and set to preside over lustful
practices ? what for that conversion of an ant into which
Jupiter, the greatest [of the gods], contracted the outlines
of his huge body ? 3 what for swans and satyrs ? what for
golden showers, which the same seductive [god] put on with
perfidious guile, amusing himself by changes of form ?
And, that we may not seem to speak of Jupiter only, what
allegories can there be in the loves of the other deities?
what in their circumstances as hired servants and slaves ?
what in their bonds, bereavements, lamentations? what in
their agonies, wounds, sepulchres ? Now, while in this you
might be held guilty in one respect for writing in such wise
about the gods, you have added to your guilt beyond
measure4 in calling base things by the names of deities, and
again in defaming the gods by [giving to them] the names
of infamous things. But if you believed without any doubt5
that they were here close at hand, or anywhere at all, fear
would check you in making mention of them, and your
beliefs and unchanged thoughts should have been exactly 6
as if they were listening to you and heard your words.
For among men devoted to the services of religion, not only
the gods themselves, but even the names of the gods, should
be reverenced, and there should be quite as much grandeur
in their names as there is in those even who are thought of
under these names.

1 So Meursius, changing the MS. o- into u-rigo.

2 The first four edd. retain the MS., reading par/is — " brought forth ;"
the others adopt a suggestion of Canterus, raptis, as above.

3 Lit., " vastness."

4 Addere garo gerrem, a proverb ridiculing a worthless addition, which
nullifies something in itself precious, garum being a highly esteemed
sauce (or perhaps soup), which would be thrown away upon gerres, a
worthless kind of salt fish. Arnobius merely means, however, that
while such stories are wrong, what follows is unspeakably worse.

5 Lit., " with indubitable knowledge."

6 Lit., " it ought to have been so believed, and to be held fixed in
thought just," etc.

2G8 AENOBIUS ADVEPSUS GENTES. [BOOK v.

45. Judge fairly, and you are deserving of censure in
this,1 that in your common conversation you name Mars
when you mean2 fighting, Neptune when you mean the seas,
Ceres when you mean bread, Minerva when you mean
weaving,3 Venus when you mean filthy lusts. For what
reason is there, that, when things can be classed under their
own names, they should be called by the names of the gods,
and that such an insult should be offered to the deities as not
even we men endure, if any one applies and turns our names
to trifling objects? But language, [you say], is contemptible,
if defiled with such words.4 O modesty,5 worthy of praise !
you blush to name bread and wine, and are not afraid to
speak of Venus instead of carnal intercourse !

1 Lit., " are in this part of censure." 2 Lit., " for."

3 Lit., " the warp," stamine.

4 i.e. if things are spoken of under their proper names.

5 The MS. reads ac unintelligibly.

BOOK VI,

ARGUMENT.

HAVING shown how impious were the opinions entertained by the heathen
about their own gods, Aruobius next meets the charge of impiety made
against Christians because they neither built temples, nor set up statues,
nor offered sacrifices. This, however, he asserts was not the fruit of im-
piety, but of nobler beliefs (1). For, admitting that they are gods, they
must be free from all imperfection, and therefore self-sufficient, not de-
pendent on aid from without, nor afflicted with the desires and passions
of mortals. To think thus, he adds, is not to hold the gods in con-
tempt (2). But if they are such, of what use would temples be to them ?
Is it not sheer madness to think that you honour your superiors when you
judge of them by your own necessities ? Do the gods need shelter from
cold and heat, from rain or storm ? And although to men temples may
seem magnificent, to the gods of heaven they can be only mean cells (3).
But, it might be said, temples are built not to shelter the gods, but that
we may address them face to face, as it were. Then, if prayers were
offered to the gods under the open heaven, they would not be heard.
But the true God must hear prayers wherever offered, nay, must be
present even in the silent recesses of the heart, to know what is thought,
what is desired, even though it be not expressed, for it is his to fill all
things with his power, and not to be present in one place only (4).
Otherwise there could be no hope of help ; for if prayers were made to
one deity from different parts of the earth, while he could be present
only in one, then either all would be alike neglected, or one only would
be heard and answered (5).

These temples, however, which were said to have been built in honour
of the gods, were in reality places of sepulture. Thus Cecrops was
buried in the temple of Minerva at Athens, and others, both men and
women, in various well-known shrines (6), even the Capitol being only
the sepulchre of Olus ; and thus the heathens are shown to have been
guilty either of worshipping the dead as gods, or of dishonouring the
gods by making tombs their temples (7).

As to images, if there are really gods in heaven to whom supplication

can be made, why, Arnobius asks, should figures of them be made on

earth? and if they are not believed to be in heaven, it is still more

difficult to say of what use these images are (8Y We worship the gods,

2G9

270 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vi.

the heathen said, by means of their images. Can the gods, therefore,
Arnobius asks, receive homage only when offered to statues? What
can be more insulting than to believe in a god, and pray to a statue,
to hope for aid from a deity, but to ask it from his image (9) ? More-
over, how could it be known that those figures were indeed images of
the gods ? The moon is ever in motion ; how could the figure of a woman
which never stirred be her likeness ? But if the gods were not such as
their statues — which no one supposed — what audacity was shown in
giving to them whatever figures men pleased (10) ! Little occasion had
they to laugh at the superstitious worship of rivers, stones, sabres, and
pieces of wood by ancient and barbarous peoples, while they themselves
prayed to little figures of men. Did they, then, believe that the gods
were like men ? No, Arnobius says ; only they found themselves com-
mitted to a false position, and would rather maintain it with violence
and cruelty than admit that they were in error (11). Hence it was that
such extraordinary forms and equipments were given to the gods. But
if the images were secretly removed from their proper places, and the
insignia of one given to another, it would be impossible to say which
was Jupiter, which Mars. How absurd to form images of the gods,
which depend for their individuality on the dresses put upon them (12) !
It was a small thing, however, to distinguish the gods by means of reap-
ing-hooks, tridents, horns, or hammers ; but it was no light matter that
the gods should be fashioned like lewd men and women, and that thus
divine honours should be paid to harlots (13). Arnobius next insists that
images are but dead matter, moulded, cut,- filed, and hewn into form by
men ; and that it is therefore absurd for a man to worship what he has
himself made (14). No one would worship, he says, a mass of metal or a
heap of stones, or even fragments of images ; but why, while the parts
are thus regarded as merely dead matter, should they, when formed into
an image, become divine (15) ? Still men asked blessings from earthen-
ware, copper, and ivory, and supposed that their prayers were heard by
senseless figures, forgetting how and from what they were formed ; that
it was man's skill which gave them all their grandeur, for within them
there was only hideous emptiness ; and that they were destroyed by
time, used as coverts by mean and loathsome creatures, and bemired by
birds, the dumb animals thus teaching their master, man, that the images
which he \vorshipped were beneath his notice (16). But, was the reply
of the heathen, we worship not the images, but the deities, which are
brought into them by their consecration. Do the gods, then, quit heaven
to give dignity to what is base? And if so, do they enter these images
willingly or unwillingly ? If unwillingly, is their majesty not lessened ?
If willingly, what can they find there to entice them from their starry
seats (17)? It is further asked, Do the gods always remain in these
images, or come and go at will ? If the former, how wretched is their
case 1 If the latter, how is it to be known when the god is in the image

BOOK vi.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 271

so that he should be worshipped, and when he has quitted it so that it
may be safely neglected ? Moreover, in small figures, do the gods be-
come small? in those represented as sitting, do they sit? and do they
thus conform in all respects to their images (18) ? But there are either
as many gods as statues, or no statue can be tenanted by a god, because
one god cannot occupy different images (19). But if the gods dwell
in their own images, why do they not themselves defend these, instead of
leaving it to dogs and geese and watchers to protect their effigies from
fire or thieves (20) ? Nay, more, why do they allow themselves to be
robbed and insulted by the stripping from their images of what is
valuable (21) ? It might be said that the gods despised such trifles ;
but if so, that showed that they despised the images as well. Arnobius
then relates the stories of men falling in love with statues of Venus, and
asks, where was the goddess, that she did not repel and punish such
insulting wantonness, or at least recall the frenzied youths to their
senses (22) ? If any explanation could be found for this, there was none,
however, for the fact that so many temples had been destroyed by
fire and spoiled by robbers, without the interference of their presiding
deities (23). Finally, if it were said that images had been devised in
ancient times to terrify men from their wickedness by the belief that gods
were at hand to see and punish their crimes, Arnobius admits that
there would be some reason in this, if temples and images caused peace,
justice, and purity to prevail on the earth ; but points out that this
had not been the result, for crime and wickedness abound everywhere ;
and temples, and even the images which were to force men to be just, are
plundered without fear (24). He then asks what power Saturn's sickle,
the winged shoes of Mercury, or any of the other insignia of the gods
possess, to move men's minds to fear (25) ; and whether it had ever
been thought that men could be frightened by a hideous face, as children
by some bugbear. The enactment of laws, however, shows clearly that
images or temples have no such power (26). He next proceeds to meet
the charge, that Christians are atheists because they offer none of the
usual divine honours to God. The fact he admits, but asserts that in so
doing Christians really comply with God's will (27).

1AVJNG shown briefly how impious and in-
famous [are the] opinions [which] you have
formed about your gods, we have now to1
speak of their temples, their images also, and
sacrifices, and of the other things which are2 united and
closely related to them. For you are here in the habit of
fastening upon us a very serious charge of impiety because we
do not rear temples for the ceremonies of worship, do not set
1 Lit., " it remains tnat we." 2 Lit., " series which is," etc.

272 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOR vi.

up statues and images1 of any god, do not build altars,2 do
not offer the blood of creatures slain [in sacrifices], incense,
nor sacrificial meal, and finally, do not bring wine flowing
in libations from sacred bowls ; which, indeed, we neglect to
build and do, not as though we cherish impious and wicked
dispositions, or have conceived any madly desperate feeling
of contempt for the gods, but because we think and believe
that they3 (if only they are true gods, and are called by this
exalted name4) either scorn such honours, if they give way
to scorn, or endure [them] with anger, if they are roused by
feelings of rage.

2. For — that you may learn what are our sentiments and
opinions about that race — we think that they (if only they
are true gods, that the same things may be said again till you
are wearied hearing them5) should have all the virtues in
perfection, should be wise, upright, venerable (if only our
heaping upon them human honours is not a crime), strong in
excellences within themselves, and should not give themselves6
up to external props, because the completeness of -their un-
broken bliss is made perfect ; [should be] free from all agi-
tating and disturbing passions ; should not burn with anger,
should not be excited by any desires ; should send misfortune
to none, should not find a cruel pleasure in the ills of men ;
should not terrify by portents, should not show prodigies to
cause fear ; should not hold [men] responsible and liable to
be punished for the vows which they owe, nor demand ex-
piatory sacrifices by threatening omens ; should not bring on
pestilences [and] diseases by corrupting the air, should not
burn up the fruits with droughts ; should take no part in the
slaughter of war and devastation of cities ; should not wish
ill to one party, and be favourable to the success of another ;
but, as becomes great minds, should weigh all in a just

1 Singular.

2 Non altaria, non aras, i.e. neither to the superior nor inferior deities.
Of. Virgil, Eel. v. 66.

3 The earlier edd. prefix d to the MS. eos— " that the gods," etc.

4 Lit., "endowed with the eminence of this name.'1

5 Lit., " and to satiety."

6 The MS. wants ae, which was supplied by Stewechius.

BOOK vi.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 273

balance, and show kindness impartially to all. For it belongs
to a mortal race and human weakness to act otherwise j1 and
the maxims and declarations of wise men state distinctly, that
those who are touched by passion live a life of suffering,2
[and] are weakened by grief,3 and that it cannot be but that
those who have been given over to disquieting feelings, have
been bound by the laws of mortality. Now, since this is the
case, how can we be supposed to hold the gods in contempt,
who we say are not gods, and cannot be connected with the
powers of heaven, unless they are just and worthy of the
admiration which great minds excite ?

3. But, [we are told], we rear no temples to them, and
do not worship their images ; we do not slay victims in sacri-
fice, we do not offer incense and libations of wine. And what
greater honour or dignity can we ascribe to them, than that
we put them in the same position as the Head and Lord of
the universe, to whom the gods owe it in common with us,4
that they are conscious that they exist, and have a living
being ? 5 For do we honour Him with shrines, and by build-
ing temples ? 6 Do we even slay victims [to Him] ? Do we
give [to Him] the other things, to take which and pour them

1 i.e. not act impartially and benevolently, which may possibly be the
meaning of contrariis agere, or, as Oehler suggests, " to assail [men]
with contrary, i.e. injurious things." All edd. read egere, except Oehler,
who can see no meaning in it ; but if translated, " to wish for contrary
things," it suits the next clause very well.

2 Lit., u whom passion touches, suffer."

3 So the MS., Stewechius, Hild., and Oehler, while the first four edd.
and Oberthiir merely add m to dolore, and join with the preceding pati
— " suffer pain, are weakened."

4 The MS. and most edd. read di-vina nobiscum — " the divine things
along with us;" Heraldus rejects div. as a gloss, while Meursius,
followed by Orelli, corrects dii una, and Oehler divi una, as above.

6 Lit., " are contained in vital substance."

6 Arnobius here expressly denies that the Christians had any temples.
There has been some controversy on the subject (Mosheim, B. i. cent. 1,
ch. 4, sec. 5, Soames' ed.), surely as needless as controversy could be ; for
as the Christians must at all times have had stated places of meeting (al-
though in time of persecution these might be changed frequently), it is
clear that, in speaking thus, the meaning must be only, that their buildings
had no architectural pretensions, and their service no splendour of ritual.

AUNOB. S

274 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vr.

forth in libation shows not a careful regard to reason, but
heed to a practice maintained l [merely] by usage ? For it
is perfect folly to measure greater powers by your necessities,
and to give the things useful to yourself to the gods who
give [all things], and to think this an honour, not an insult.
We ask, therefore, to do what service to the gods, or to meet
what want, do you say that temples have been reared,2 and
think that they should be again built? Do they feel the
cold of8 winter, or are they scorched by summer suns ? Do
storms of rain flow over them, or whirlwinds shake them 1
Are they in danger of being exposed to the onset of enemies,
or the furious attacks of wild beasts, so that it is right and
becoming to shut them up in places of security,4 or guard
them by throwing up a rampart of stones ? For what are
these temples? If you ask human weakness5 — something
vast and spacious ; if you consider the power of the gods —
small caves, as it were,6 and even, to speak more truly, the
narrowest kind of caverns formed and contrived with sorry
judgment.7 Now, if you ask to be told who was their first
founder8 and builder, either Phoroneus or the Egyptian
Merops9 will be mentioned to you, or, as Varro relates in his
[treatise, de] Admirandis, ^Eacus the offspring of Jupiter.
Though these, then, should be built of heaps of marble, or
shine resplendent with ceilings fretted with gold, [though]
precious stones sparkle here, and gleam like stars set at vary-
ing intervals, all these things are made up of earth, and of the

1 Lit., " drawn out."

2 So the edd., reading constructa for the corrupt MS. conscripta —
" written."

3 i.e. to suppose that temples are necessary to the gods, is to make them
subject to human weakness.

4 Lit., " with fortifications of roofs."

5 i.e. if you have regard merely to the weakness of men, a temple may
be something wonderful.

6 Lit., " some." 7 Lit., " formed by contrivance of a poor heart."

8 Institutor, wanting in all edd., except Hild. and Oehler.

9 Arnobius here agrees with Clemens Alexandrinus, but Jos. Scaliger
has pointed out that the name should be Cecrops. It is possible that
Arnobius may have been misled by what was merely a slip of Clement'a
pen.

BOOK vi.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 275

lowest dregs of [even] baser matter. For not even, if you
value these more highly, is it to be believed that the gods
take pleasure in them, or that they do not refuse and scorn
to shut themselves up, and be confined within these barriers.
This, [my opponent] says, is the temple of Mars, this [that]
of Juno and of Venus, this [that] of Hercules, of Apollo,
of Dis. What is this but to say this is the house of
Mars, this of Juno and Venus,1 Apollo dwells here, in this
[house] abides Hercules, in that Summanus? Is it not,
then, the very2 greatest affront to hold the gods kept fast3
in habitations, to give to them little huts, to build lockfast
places and cells, and to think that the things are4 necessary
to them which are needed by men, cats, emrnets, and lizards,
by quaking, timorous, and little mice ?

4. But, says [my opponent], it is not for this reason that
we assign temples to the gods as though we [wished to] ward
off from them drenching storms of rain, winds, showers, or
the rays of the sun ; but in order that we may be able to
see them in person and close at hand, to come near and
address them, and impart to them, when in a measure present,
the expressions of our reverent feelings. For if they are in-
voked under the open heaven, and the canopy of ether, they
hear nothing [I suppose] ; and unless prayers are addressed to
them [by those] near at hand, they will stand deaf and immove-
able as if nothing were said. And yet we think that every
god whatever — if only he has the power of this name — should
hear what every one said from every part of the world, just
as if he were present ; nay, more, should foresee, without wait-
ing to be told,6 what every one conceived in his secret and
silent6 thoughts. And as the stars, the sun, the moon, while

1 The preceding words, from " this of Hercules," are omitted by the
first four edd. and Elmenh., and were first restored from the MS. by
Stewechius.

2 Lit., " first and."

3 So the edd., reading Jiabere districtos for the MS. destructos.

4 Lit., " that the things be thought to be."

5 Lit., " knowledge being anticipated."

6 These words, et tacitis, omitted by Oberthiir, are similarly omitted
by Orelli without remark.

276 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vi

they wander above the earth, are steadily and everywhere in
sight of all those who gaze at them without any exception ;
so, too,1 it is fitting that the ears of the gods should be closed
against no tongue, and should be ever within reach, although
voices should flow together to them from widely separated
regions. For this [it is that] belongs specially to the gods, —
to fill all things with their power, to be not partly at any
place, but all everywhere, not to go to dine with the ^Ethio-
pians, and return after twelve days to their own dwellings.2

5. Now, if this be not the case, all hope of help is taken
away, and it will be doubtful whether you are heard3 by the
gods or not, if ever you perform the sacred rites with due
ceremonies. For, to make it clear,4 let us suppose that there
is a temple of some deity in the Canary Islands, [another]
of the same [deity] in remotest Thyle, also among the Seres,
among the tawny Garamantes, and any others5 who are de-
barred from knowing each other by seas, mountains, forests,
and the four quarters of the world. If they all at one time
beg of the deity with sacrifices what their wants compel
each one to think about,6 what hope, pray, will there be
to all of obtaining the benefit, if the god does not hear the
cry sent up to him everywhere, and [if] there shall be any
distance to which the words of the suppliant for help cannot
penetrate ? For either he will be nowhere present, if he
may at times not be anywhere,7 or he will be at one place

1 So the edd., inserting quo- into the MS. reading ita-que — "it is there-
fore fitting," which is absurd, as making the connection between the
members of the sentence one not of analogy, but of logical sequence.

2 Of. the speech of Thetis, Iliad, i. 423-5.

8 So the margin of Ursinus, Elm., LB., and Orelli, with Meursius, read-
ing audiamini for the MS. audiamur — " we are heard," which does not
harmonize with the next clause.

4 Lit., " for the purpose of coming to know the thing."

5 Lit., " if there are any others."

6 So the MS., reading c-ogitare, corrected r " to beg," in the margin

of Ursinus and Elm. For the preceding words the MS. reads, poscantque
de numine. The edd. omit que as above, except Oehler, who reads qu& —
" what hope will there be, what, pray, to all," etc.

7 So the MS., reading si uspiam poterit aliquando non esse, which may be
understood in two senses, either not limited by space, or not in space, i.e.

BOOK vi.] ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 277

only, since he cannot give his attention generally, and with-
out making any distinction. And thus it is brought about,
that either the god helps none at all, if being busy with
something he has been unable to hasten to give ear to their
cries, or one only goes away with his prayers heard, [while]
the rest have effected nothing.

6. What [can you say] as to this, that it is attested by the
writings of authors, that many of these temples which have
been raised with golden domes and lofty roofs cover bones
and ashes, and are sepulchres of the dead ? Is it not plain
and manifest, either that you worship dead men for immortal
gods, or that an inexpiable affront is cast upon the deities,
whose shrines and temples have been built over the tombs of
the dead ? Antiochus,1 in the ninth [book] of his Histories,
relates that Cecrops was buried in the temple of Minerva,2
at Athens ; again, in the temple of the same goddess, which
is in the citadel of Larissa,3 it is related and declared that
Acrisius was laid, [and] in the sanctuary of Polias,4 Erich-
thonius ; [while] the brothers Dairas and Immarnachus [were
buried] in the enclosure of Eleusin, which lies near the city.
What say you as to the virgin daughters of Celeus ? are they
not said to be buried5 in the temple of Ceres at Eleusin ?
[and] in the shrine of Diana, which was set up in the temple
of the Delian Apollo, are not Hyperoche and Laodice buried,
who are said to have been brought thither from the country of

not existing ; but the reading and meaning must be regarded as alike
doubtful.

1 A Syracusan historian. The rest of the chapter is almost literally
translated from Clement (p. 39), who is followed by Eusebius also
(Prop. Evang. ii. 6).

2 i.e. the Acropolis.

3 In Thessaly, whither (ace. to Pausanias) he had fled in vain, to avoid
the fulfilment of the oracle that he should be killed by his daughter's
son.

4 i.e. Athena Polias, or guardian of cities. Immediately below, the MS.
roads Immarnachus, corrected in LB. and Orelli Immarus from Clem.,
who speaks of " Immarus, son of Eumolpus and Daeira."

5 So the unintelligible reading of the MS., humation-ibus officia, was
emended by Heraldus, followed by LB. and Orelli, -is haluisse.

278 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vr.

the Hyperboreans ? In the Milesian Didymaeon,1 Leanclrius
says that Cleochus had the last honours of burial paid to
him. Zeno of Myndus openly relates that the monument of
Leucophryne is in the sanctuary of Diana at Magnesia.
Under the altar of Apollo, which is seen in the city of
Telmessus, is it not invariably declared by writings that the
prophet Telmessus lies buried ? Ptolemseus, the son of
Agesarchus, in the first book of the History of Philopator^
which he published, affirms, on the authority of literature,
that Cinyras, king of Paphos, was interred in the temple of
Venus with all his family, nay, more, with all his stock. It
would be3 an endless and boundless task to describe in what
sanctuaries they all are throughout the world ; nor is anxious
care required, although4 the Egyptians fixed a penalty for any
one who should have revealed the places in which Apis lay
hid, as to those Polyandria5 of Varro,6 by what temples they
are covered, and what heavy masses they have laid upon them.
7. But why [do] I [speak] of these trifles ? What man is
there who is ignorant that in the Capitol of the imperial
people is the sepulchre of Tolus7 Vulcentanus ? Who is
there, I say, who does not know that from beneath8 its

1 i.e. the temple near Didyma, sacred to Apollo, who was worshipped
then under the name Didymus.

2 i.e. " lover of his father," the name given ironically to the fourth
Ptolemy, because he murdered his father.

3 Lit., " is."

4 So the MS., both Rom. edd., Hild., and Oehler, reading quamvispcevam;
Gelenius, Canterus, Elm., and Oberthiir omit tn's, and the other edd. v,
i.e. " as to what punishment the Egyptian," etc. This must refer to the
cases in which the sacred bull, having outlived the term of twenty-five
years, was secretly killed by the priests, while the people were taught
that it had thrown itself into the water.

5 i.e. " burial-places." By this Oehler has attempted to show is meant
the Hebdomades vel de Imaginibus of Varro, a series of biographical
sketches illustrated with portraits, executed in some way which cannot
be clearly ascertained.

0 MS. Barronis.

7 So the MS., first four edd., and Oberthiir, reading ToK, corrected OH
in the others, from Servius (ad. jEn. viii. 345). Arnobius himself gives
the form Aulus, i.e. Olus, immediately below, so that it is probably correct.

8 Lit., "the seats of."

BOOK vi.] ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 279

foundations there was rolled a man's head, buried for no very
long time before, either by itself without the other parts [of
the body] (for some relate this), or with all its members'?
Now, if you require this to be made clear by the testimonies
of authors, Sammonicus, Granius, Valerianus,1 and Fabius
will declare to you whose son Aulus2 was, of what race and
nation, how3 he was bereft of life and light by the slave of
his brother, of what crime he was guilty against his fellow-
citizens, that he was denied burial in his father4 land. You
will learn also — although they pretend to be unwilling to
make this public — what was done with his head when cut off,
or in what place it was shut up, and the whole affair carefully
concealed, in order that the omen which the gods had attested
might stand without interruption,5 unalterable, and sure.
Now, while it was proper that this [story] should .be sup-
pressed, and concealed, and forgotten in the lapse of time,
the composition of the name published it, and, by a testimony
which could not be got rid of, caused it to remain [in men's
minds], together with its causes, so long as it endured itself ; 6
and the state [which is] greatest [of all], and worships all
deities, did not blush in giving a name to the temple, to name
it from the head of Olus7 Capitolium rather than from the
name of Jupiter.

8. We have therefore — as I suppose — shown sufficiently,
that to the immortal gods temples have been either reared
in vain, or built in consequence of insulting opinions [held]

1 Ursinus suggested Valerius Antias, mentioned in the first chapter of
the fifth book ; a conjecture adopted by Hild.

2 The MS., LB., Hild., and Oehler read Aulus, and, ace. to Oehler, all
other edd. Tolus. Orelli, however, reads Olus, as above.

3 The MS. and both Roman edd. read germani servuli vita without
meaning, corrected as above by Gelenius, Canterus, Elm., and Oberthiir,
ut a g. servulo, and ut a g. servulis — "by the slaves," in the others, except
Oehler who reads as above, g. servulo ut.

4 The MS. and both Roman edd. read unintelligibly patientix, corrected
j>aternx hi Hild. and Oehler, patriie in the rest.

5 Lit., " the perpetuity of the omen sealed might stand."
• Lit., " through the times given to itself."

7 The MS. reads s-oli,— changed into Toli by the first four edd., Elm.,
and Oberthiir. The others omit s.

280 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Soos vr.

to their dishonour and to the belittling of the power believed
[to be in their hands]. We have next to say something about
statues and images, which you form with much skill, and
tend with religious care, — wherein if there is any credibility,
we can by no amount of consideration settle in our own
minds whether you do this in earnest and with a serious pur-
pose, or amuse yourselves in childish dreams by mocking at
these very things.1 For if you are assured that the gods exist
whom you suppose, and that they live in the highest regions
of heaven, what cause, what reason, is there that those images
should be fashioned by you, when you have true beings to
whom you may pour forth prayers, and [from whom you
may] ask help in trying circumstances ? But if, on the
contrary, you do not believe, or, to speak with moderation,
are in doubt, in this case, also, what reason is there, pray, to
fashion and set up images of doubtful [beings], and to form 2
with vain imitation what you do not believe to exist ? Do
you perchance say, that under these images of deities there
is displayed to you their presence, as it were, and that, be-
cause it has not been given you to see the gods, they are
worshipped in this fashion,3 and the duties owed [to them]
paid ? He who says and asserts this, does not believe that
the gods exist ; and he is proved not to put faith in his own
religion, to whom it is necessary to see what he may hold, lest
that which [being] obscure is not seen, may happen to be vain.
9. We worship the gods, you say, by means of images.
What then ? Without these, do the gods not know that they
are worshipped, and will they not think that any honour is
shown to them by you ? Through by-paths, as it were, then,
and by assignments to a third party,4 as they are called, they
receive and accept your services ; and before those to whom

1 i.e. " which you pretend to worship."

2 So the edd., reading formar-e, except Hild. and Oehler, who retain
the MS. reading i — " that images be formed."

3 The MS. and both Roman edd. read corruptly insolidi, corrected ita
or sic coli, as above, in all except the last two edd.

4 i.e. you do not seek access to the gods directly, and seek to do
them honour by giving that honour to the idols instead.

BOOK vi.] AENOBIUS ADVEESUS GENTES. 281

that service is owed experience it, you first sacrifice to images,
and transmit, as it were, some remnants to them at the
pleasure of others.1 And what greater wrong, disgrace, hard-
ship, can be inflicted than to acknowledge one god, and [yet]
make supplication to something else — to hope for help from a
deity, and pray to an image without feeling ? Is not this, I
pray you, that which is said in the common proverbs : to cut
down the smith when you strike at the fuller; 2 and when you
seek a man's advice^ to require of asses and pigs their opinions
as to ichat should be done ?

10. And whence, finally, do you know whether all these
images which you form and put in the place of3 the immortal
gods reproduce and bear a resemblance to the gods ? For it
may happen that in heaven one has a beard who by you is
represented4 with smooth cheeks ; that [another] is rather ad-
vanced in years to whom you give the appearance of a youth ;6
that here he is fair, [with blue eyes],6 who really has grey ones ;
that he has distended nostrils whom you make and form with
a high nose. For it is not right to call or name that an image
which does not derive from the face of the original features
like [it] ; which7 can be recognised to be clear and certain from
things which are manifest. For while all we men see that
the sun is perfectly round by our eyesight, which cannot be
doubted, you have given 8 to him the features of a man, and

1 i.e. the transmission of the sacrifice to the gods is made dependent
on idols.

2 This corresponds exactly to the English, *'to shoot afc the pigeon
and hit the crow."

3 Lit., "with vicarious substitution for."

4 The MS. reads effi-gitur, corrected as above, (ffin., in all edd. except
Hild., who reads efficitur — "is made," and Stewechius, effujiatur— " is
formed."

5 Lit., " boy's age."

6 Flavus, so invariably associated with blue eyes, that though these
are the feature brought into contrast, they are only suggested in this
way, and not directly mentioned — a mode of speech very characteristic
of Arnobius.

7 i.e. a fact which can be seen to be true by appealing to analogy.

8 So the MS., LB., Hild., and Oehler, reading donastis, the others
donatis — "you give."

282 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vi.

of mortal bodies. The moon is always in motion, and in its
restoration every month puts on thirty faces : l with you, as
leaders and designers, that is [represented as] a woman, and
has one countenance, which passes through a thousand dif-
ferent states, changing each day.2 We understand that all
the winds are [only] a flow of air driven and impelled in
mundane ways : in your hands they take 3 the forms of men
filling with breath twisted trumpets by blasts from out their
breasts.4 Among [the representations of] your gods we see
[that there is] the very stern face of a lion c smeared with
pure vermilion, and that it is named Frugifer. If all these
images are likenesses of the gods above, there must then be
said to dwell in heaven also a god such as the image which
has been made to represent his form and appearance ;6 and, of
course, as here that [figure] of yours, so there the deity him-
self7 is a mere mask and face, without the rest of the body,
growling with fiercely gaping jaws, terrible, red as blood,8

1 As the appearance of the moon is the same in some of its phases as
in others, it is clear that Arnobius cannot mean that it has thirty dis-
tinct forms. We must therefore suppose that he is either speaking very
loosely of change upon change day after day, or that he is referring to
some of the lunar theories of the ancients, such as that a new moon is
created each day, and that its form is thus ever new (Lucr. v. 729-748).

2 Lit., "is changed through a thousand states with daily instability."

3 Lit., "are." * Lit., "intestine and domestic."

5 The MS. reads leon-e-s torvissimam faciem, emended, as above, leonis
t.f., in LB., Orelli, Hild., and Oehler, and I. torvissima facie — " lions of
very stern face," in the others. Nourry supposes that the reference is
to the use of lions, or lion-headed figures, as architectural ornaments on
temples (cf. the two lions rampant surmounting the gate of Mycenae),
but partially coincides in the view of Elm., that mixed figures are meant,
such as are described by Tertullian and Minucius Felix (ch. 28 : " You
deify gods made up of a goat and a lion, and with the faces of lions and
of dogs "). The epithet frugifer, however, which was applied to the
Egyptian Osiris, the Persian Mithras, and Bacchus, who were also repre-
sented as lions, makes it probable that the reference is to symbolic
statues of the sun.

6 Lit., " such a god to whose form and appearance the likeness of this
image has been directed."

7 Lit., "that."

8 The MS. and both Roman edd. read unintelligibly sanguineo decotoro,

BOOK vi.] ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 283

holding an apple fast with his teeth, and at times, as dogs [do]
when wearied, putting his tongue out of his gaping mouth.1
But if,2 indeed, this is not the case, as we all think that it is
not, what, pray, is the meaning of so great audacity to fashion
to yourself whatever form you please, and to say 3 that it is
an image of a god whom you cannot prove to exist at all ?

11. You laugh because in ancient times the Persians wor-
shipped rivers, as is told in the writings which hand down
[these things] to memory ; the Arabians an unshapen stone ;4
the Scythian nations a sabre ; the Thespians a branch instead
of Cinxia ;5 the Icarians6 an unhewn log instead of Diana ;
the people of Pessinus a flint instead of the mother of the
gods ; the Romans a spear instead of Mars, as the muses of
Varro point out ; and, before they were acquainted with the
statuary's art, the Samians a plank7 instead of Juno, as
Aethlius 8 relates : and you do not laugh when, instead of the

for which s. de colore, as above, has been suggested by Canterus, with
the approval of Heraldus.

1 The MS. here inserts puetuitate, for which no satisfactory emendation
has been proposed. The early edd. read pituitate, a word for which there
is no authority, while LB. gives potus aviditate — " drunk with avidity "
— both being equally hopeless.

* MS. sic, corrected by Gelenius si.

3 So Meursius, ac dicere, for MS. -cidere.

* It is worthy of notice that although in this passage, as often else-
where, Arnobius adheres pretty closely to the argument proposed by
Clemens Alexandrinus, he even in such passages sometimes differs from
it, and not at random. Thus Clement speaks merely of a " stone," and
Arnobius of an " unshaped stone." The former expression harmonizes
with the words of Maximus Tyrius (Serm. xxxviii. p. 225, Steph.), " The
Arabians worship I know not whom, but the image which I saw was a
square stone ;" while Suidas (Kuster's ed., s. v. &i>? *Apvi) agrees with
Arnobius in calling it a " stone, black, square, unfashioned" (etTvisruTo:).
This is the more noteworthy, as at times Arnobius would almost seem
to be following Clement blindly.

* So Arnobius renders Clement's Ciihseronian Hera.

6 So corrected in the notes of Canterus from Clem, for the MS. reading
Carios, retained by the first four edd. and Elmenh. In Icaria there was
a temple of Diana called Tetvpoirfaiov.

7 The MS. and first four edd. read p-uteum — " a well," corrected plut.%
as above, by Gifanius, and in the notes of Canterus.

8 The MS. reads ethedius, corrected in the notes of Canterua.

284 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Booic VL

immortal gods, you make supplication to little images of men
and human forms — nay, you even suppose that these very
little images are gods, and besides these you do not believe

that anything has divine power. What say you, O ye !

Do the gods of heaven have ears, then, and temples, an
occiput, spine, loins, sides, hams, buttocks, houghs,1 ankles,
and the rest of the other members with which we have been
formed, which were also mentioned in the first part [of this
book] 2 a little more fully, and cited with greater copiousness
of language ? Would that it were possible3 to look into the
sentiments and very recesses of your mind, in which you
revolve various and enter into the most obscure considera-
tions : we should find that you yourselves even feel as we do,
and have no other opinions as to the form of the deities.
But what can we do with obstinate prejudices? what with
those who are menacing [us] with swords, and devising new
punishments [against us]? In your rage4 you maintain a
bad cause, [and that although you are] perfectly aware [of
it] ; and that which you have once done without reason, you
defend lest you should seem to have ever been in ignorance ;
and you think it better not to be conquered, than to yield and
bow to acknowledged truth.

12. From such causes as these this also has followed, with
your connivance, that the wanton fancy of artists has found
full scope in [representing] the bodies of the gods, and
giving forms to them, at which even the sternest might
laugh. And so Hammon is even now formed and repre-
sented with a ram's horns ; Saturn with his crooked sickle,
like some guardian of the fields, [and] pruner of too luxu-
riant branches ; the son of Maia with a broad - brimmed
travelling cap, as if he were preparing to take the road, and
avoiding the sun's rays and the dust; Liber with tender
limbs, and with a woman's perfectly free and easily flowing

1 So all edd., except both Roman edd., which retain the MS. reading
in the singular, sujfraginem.

2 i.e. iii. 6. 8 Lit., " it was allowed."

4 So Meursius suggested amentes for the MS. reading animantis, for
which Heraldus proposed aryumentis — " by argument*."

BOOK vi.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 285

lines of body ; 1 Venus, naked and unclothed, just as if you
said that she exposed publicly, and sold to all comers,2 the
beauty of her prostituted body; Vulcan with his cap and
hammer, but with his right hand free, and with his dress girt
up as a workman prepares 3 for his work ; the Delian god
with a plectrum and lyre, gesticulating like a player on the
cithern and an actor about to sing ; the king of the sea
with his trident, just as if he had to fight in the gladiatorial
contest: nor can any figure of any deity be found4 which
does not have certain characteristics5 bestowed [on it] by the
generosity of its makers. Lo, if some witty and cunning
king were to remove the Sun from [his place before] the
gate6 and transfer him to that of Mercury, [and] again were
to carry off Mercury and make him migrate to the shrine of
the Sun (for both are made beardless by you, and with smooth
faces), and to give to this one rays [of light], to place a little
cap 7 on the Sun's head, how will you be able to distinguish
between them, whether this is the Sun, or that Mercury, since
dress, not the peculiar appearance of the face, usually points
out the gods to you ? Again, if, having transported them in
like manner, he were to take away his horns from the unclad
Jupiter, and fix them upon the temples of Mars, and to strip
Mars of his arms, and, on the other hand, invest Hammon
with them, what distinction can there be between them, since
he who had been Jupiter can be also supposed to be Mars,
and he who had been Mavors can assume the appearance of
Jupiter Hammon ? To such an extent in there wantonness
in fashioning those images and consecrating names, as if
[they were] peculiar to them ; since, if you take away their
dress, the [means of] recognising each is put an end to, god
may be believed to be god, one may seem to be the other,
nay, more, both may be considered both !

1 Lit., " and most dissolved with the laxity of feminine liquidity."

2 Divendere. s Lit., " with a workman's preparing."
4 Lit., "is there any figure to find." 5 Habitus.

6 Exforibus. Cf. Tertull. de Idol. ch. 15: " In Greek writers we also
read that Apollo &vpxto; and the dsemones Anlelii watch over doors."

7 So the edd., reading petas- un-culum for the MS. -io:

286 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boos vi.

13. But why do I laugh at the sickles and tridents which
have been given to the gods ? why at the horns, hammers,
and caps, when I know that certain images have1 the forms
of certain men, and the features of notorious courtezans?
For who is there that does not know that the Athenians
formed the Hermce in the likeness of Alcibiades ? Who does
not know — if he read Posidippus over again — that Praxiteles,
putting forth his utmost skill,2 fashioned the face of the
Cnidian Venus on the model of the courtezan Gratina, whom
the unhappy man loved desperately ? But is this the only
Venus to whom there has been given beauty taken from a
harlot's face ? Phryne,3 the well-known native of Thespia —
as those who have written [on] Thespian affairs relate — when
she was at the height of her beauty, comeliness, and youthful
vigour, is said to have been the model of all the Venuses
which are [held] in esteem, whether throughout the cities of
Greece or here,4 whither has flowed the longing and eager
desire for such figures. All the artists, therefore, who lived
at that time, and to whom truth gave the greatest ability to
portray likenesses, vied in transferring with all painstaking
and zeal the outline of a prostitute to the images of the
Cytherean. The beautiful [thoughts]5 of the artists were
full of fire; and they strove each to excel the other with
emulous rivalry, not that Venus might become more august,
but that Phryne3 might stand for Venus. And so it was
brought to this, that sacred honours were offered to courte-
zans instead of the immortal gods, and an unhappy system
of worship was led astray by the making of statues. That
well-known and6 most distinguished statuary, Phidias, when
he had raised the form of Olympian Jupiter with immense

1 Lit., " are." 2 Lit., " with strife of skills."

8 MS. Phyrna, but below Phryna, which is read in both instances by
Hild. and Oehler.

* So Meursius, followed by Orelli, reading istic for the MS. iste.

5 i.e. either the conceptions in their minds, or realized in their works.
Orelli, followed by the German translator Besnard, adopting the former
view, translates " the ideas of the artists (die Ideale der KUnstler) were
full of fire and life."

6 So Gelenius and Canterus, reading et for MS. est.

BOOK vi.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 237

labour and exertion,1 inscribed on the finger of the god PAN-
TARCES2 [is] BEAUTIFUL ([this], moreover, was the name
of a boy loved by him, and that with lewd desire), and was
not moved by any fear or religious dread to call the god
by the name of a prostitute ; nay, rather, to consecrate the
divinity and image of Jupiter to a debauchee. To such an
extent is there wantonness and childish feeling in forming
those little images, adoring them as gods, heaping upon them
the divine virtues, when we see that the artists themselves
find amusement in fashioning them, and set them up as
monuments of their own lusts ! For what [reason] is there,
if you should inquire, why Phidias should hesitate to amuse
himself, and be wanton when he knew that, but a little before,
the very Jupiter which he had made was gold, stones, and
ivory,3 formless, separated, confused, and that it was he him-
self who brought all these together and bound them fast, that
their appearance4 had been given to them by himself in the
imitation6 of limbs [which he had] carved ; and, which is
more than6 all, that it was his own free gift, that [Jupiter]
had been produced and was adored among men ? 7

14. We would here, as if all nations on the earth were
present, make one speech, and pour into the ears of them all,
words which should be heard in common : Why, pray, is this,
O men ! that of your own accord you cheat and deceive your-
selves by voluntary blindness ? Dispel the darkness now, and,
returning to the light of the mind, look more closely and see
what that is which is going on, if only you retain your right,8
and are not beyond the reach9 of the reason and prudence

1 Lit., " with exertion of immense strength."

2 MS. Pantarches. This was a very common mode of expressing love
among the ancients, the name of the loved one being carved on the bark
of trees (as if the Loves or the mountain nymphs had done it), on walls,
doors, or, as in this case, on statues, with the addition "beautiful"
(Suidas, s. v. K«Ao/ and 'Pa.coovff/a Ni/asaif, with Kiister's notes).

3 Lit., " bones." 4 Lit., " conditions," habitus.
5 Lit., " similitude." 6 Lit., " first among."

T Lit., " human things."

8 i.e. the faculty of discernment, which is properly man'*.

» Lit., " are in the limits of." _, -s

288 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vr.

given to you.1 Those images which fill you with terror, and
which you adore prostrate upon the ground2 in all the temples,
are bones, stones, brass, silver, gold, clay, wood taken from a
tree, or glue mixed with gypsum. Having been heaped to-
gether, it may be, from a harlot's gauds or from a woman's8
ornaments, from camels' bones or from the tooth of the Indian
beast,4 from cooking-pots [and] little jars, from candlesticks
and lamps, or from other less cleanly vessels, [and] having
been melted down, they were cast into these shapes and came
out into the forms which you see, baked in potters' furnaces,
produced by anvils and hammers, scraped with the silver-
smith's, and filed down with [ordinary] files, cleft [and] hewn
with saws, with augers,6 with axes, dug [and] hollowed out
by the turning of borers, [and] smoothed with planes. Is
not this, then, an error? Is it not, to speak accurately, folly
to believe [that] a god which you yourself made with care, to
kneel down trembling in supplication to that which has been
formed by you, and while you know, and are assured that it
is the product6 of the labour of your hands,7 — to cast [your-
self] down upon your face, beg aid suppliantly, arid, in ad-
versity and time of distress, [ask it] to succour8 [you] with
gracious and divine favour ?

15. Lo, if some one were to place before you copper in
the lump, and not formed9 into any works [of art], masses
of unwrought silver, and gold not fashioned into shape, wood,
stones, and bones, with all the other materials of which statues

1 The MS. reads Jits — " these," emended, as above, volis in the margin
of Ursinus, Elm., and LB.

2 Lit., " and humble." 3 i.e. a respectable woman.
* i.e. the elephant's tusk.

6 So Salmasius, followed by Orelli, Hild., and Oehler, reading furfar-
aculis, and LB., reading perforaculis for the MS. furfiire aculeis.

6 So the margin of Ursinus, Meursius (according to Orelli), Hild., and
Oehler, reading part-u-m for the MS. -e " is a part of your labour," etc.

7 Lit., " of thy work and fingers."

8 So the MS., both Roman edd., Elm., and Orelli, reading numinin
favore, for which LB. reads favorem — " the favour of the propitious deity
to succour [you]."

9 Lit., "thrown together."

BOOK vi.] ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 289

and images of deities usually consist, — nay, more, if some one
were to place before you the faces of battered gods, images
melted down1 and broken, and were also to bid you slay victims
to the bits and fragments, and give sacred and divine honours
to masses without form, — we ask you to say to us, whether
you would do this, or refuse to obey. Perhaps you will say,
why ? Because there is no man so stupidly blind that he will
class among the gods silver, copper, gold, gypsum, ivory,
potter's clay, and say that these very things have, and possess
in themselves, divine power. What reason is there, then, that
all these bodies should want the power of deity and the rank
of celestials if they remain untouched and unwrought, [but]
should forthwith become gods, and be classed and numbered
among the inhabitants of heaven if they receive the forms of
men, ears, noses, cheeks, lips, eyes, and eyebrows'? Does the
fashioning add any newness to these bodies, so that from
this addition you are compelled2 to believe that something
divine and majestic has been united to them ? Does it
change copper into gold, or compel worthless earthenware to
become silver ? Does it cause things which but a little before
were without feeling, to live and breathe?3 If they had any
natural properties previously,4 all these they retain6 when
built up in the bodily forms of statues. What stupidity it is
— for I refuse to call it blindness — to suppose that the
natures of things are changed by the kind of form [into
which they are forced], and that that receives divinity from
the appearance given to it, which in its original body has
been inert, and unreasoning, and unmoved by feeling!6

16. And so unmindful and forgetful of what the sub-
stance and origin of the images are, you, men, rational

1 Rigaltius suggested confracta — " shattered," for MS. -flata.

2 So the edd., reading cog- for the MS. cogit-amini.
9 Lit., " be moved with agitation of breathing."

4 Lit., " outside," i.e. before being in bodily forms.

5 So Ursinus and LB., reading retin-e-nt for the MS. -««-, which can
hardly be correct. There may possibly be an ellipsis of si before this
clause, so that the sentence would run : "If they had any natural pro-
perties, [if] they retain all these, what stupidity," etc.

6 Lit., " deprived of moveableness of feeling."

ARNOB. T

290 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vi.

beings1 and endowed with the gift of wisdom and discretion,
sink down before pieces of baked earthenware, adore plates of
copper, beg from the teeth of elephants good health, magis-
tracies, sovereignties, power, victories, acquisitions, gains,
very good harvests, and very rich vintages ; and while it is
plain [and] clear that you are speaking to senseless things,
you think that you are heard, and bring yourselves into dis-
grace of your own accord, by vainly and credulously deceiving
yourselves.2 Oh, would that you might enter into some statue !
rather, would that you might separate3 and break up into
parts4 those Olympian and Capitoline Jupiters, and behold
all those part* alone and by themselves which make up the
whole of their bodies ! You would at once see that these gods
of yours, to whom the smoothness [of their] exterior gives a
majestic appearance by its alluring5 brightness, are [only] a
framework of flexible6 plates, particles without shape joined
together ; that they are kept from falling into ruin and fear
of destruction, by dove-tails and clamps and brace-irons ; and
that lead is run into the midst of all the hollows and where
the joints meet, and causes delay7 useful in preserving them.
You would see, I say, at once [that they have] faces only
without the rest of the head,8 imperfect hands without arms,
bellies and sides in halves, incomplete feet,9 and, which is
most ridiculous, [that they] have been put together without

1 Lit, " a rational animal."

2 Lit., " with deceit of vain credulity." The edd. read this as an in-
terrogation : " Do you, therefore, sink down, adore, and bring your-
selves into disgrace ? "

3 So Orelli, Hild., and Oehler, adopting a conjecture of Grsevius, <&-,
for the MS. de-ducere — " to lead down."

* Lit., "resolved into members."

5 Lit., " by the charm of."

6 The MS. reads fev-ilium, for which Hild. suggests /ear-, as above,

previous edd. leading flat " of cast plates ;" which cannot, however,

be correct, as Arnobius has just said that the images were in part made
of ivory.

7 Lit, " delays salutary for lastingnesses." The sense is, that the lead
prevents the joints from giving way, and so gives permanence to the
statue.

•* Occipitiis. * Plantarum vestigia.

BOOK vi.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 291

uniformity in the construction of their bodies, being in one
part made of wood, but in the other of stone. Now, indeed,
if these things could not be seen through the skill with which
they were kept out of sight,1 even those at least which lie
open to all should have taught and instructed you that you
are effecting nothing, and giving your services in vain to
dead things. For, in this case,2 do you not see that these
images, which seem to breathe,3 whose feet and knees you
touch and handle when praying, at times fall into ruins from
the constant dropping of rain, at other times lose the firm
union of their parts from their decaying and becoming
rotten,4 — how they grow black, being fumigated and dis-
coloured by the steam [of sacrifices], and by smoke, — how
with continued neglect they lose their position5 [and] ap-
pearance, and are eaten away with rust? In this case, I
say, do you not see that newts, shrews, mice, and cock-
roaches, which shun the light, build their nests and live
under the hollow parts of these statues'? that they gather
carefully into these all kinds of filth, and other things
suited to their wants, hard and half-gnawed bread, bones
dragged [thither] in view of [probable] scarcity,6 rags, down,
[and] pieces of paper to make their nests soft, and keep
their young warm ? Do you not see sometimes over the face
of an image cobwebs and treacherous nets spun by spiders,
that they may be able to entangle in them buzzing and im-
prudent flies while on the wing ? Do you not see, finally,
that swallows full of filth, flying within the very domes of the
temples, toss [themselves] about, and bedaub now the very

1 Lit., " from the art of obscurity."

2 i.e. if the nature of the images is really concealed by the skill dis-
played in their construction.

3 Lit., " breathing."

4 Lit., " are relaxed from decay of rottenness."

6 i.e. fall from their pedestals. For the MS. reading situs (retained in
LB., as above), the margin of Ursinus, followed by the other edd. except
the first four, and Oberthiir, read situ — "lose their appearance from
mould."

6 So LB. and Oehler, reading famis in spem for the MS. pannis, omitted
in other edd. All prefix p, as above, to the next word, annos.

292 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vi.

faces, now the mouths of the deities, the beard, eyes, noses,
and all the other parts on which their excrements1 fall?
Blush, then, even [though it is] late, and accept true methods
and views from dumb creatures, and let these teach you that
there is nothing divine in images, into which they do not fear
or scruple to cast unclean things in obedience to the laws of
their being, and led by their unerring instincts.2

17. But you err, [says my opponent], and are mistaken, for
we do not consider either copper, or gold and silver, or those
other materials of which statues are made, to be in themselves
gods and sacred deities ; but in them we worship and venerate
those whom their3 dedication as sacred introduces and causes
to dwell in statues made by workmen. The reasoning [is]
not vicious nor despicable by which any one — the dull,
and also the most intelligent — can believe that the gods, for-
saking their proper seats — that is, heaven — do not shrink
back and avoid entering earthly habitations ; nay, more, that
impelled by the rite of dedication, they are joined to images !
Do your gods, then, dwell in gypsum and in figures of
earthenware ? Nay, rather, are the gods the minds, spirits,
and souls of figures of earthenware and of gypsum? and,
that the meanest things may be able to become of greater
importance, do they suffer themselves to be shut up and con-
cealed and confined in4 an obscure abode ? Here, then, in
the first place, we wish and ask to be told this by you : do
they do this against their will — that is, do they enter the
images as dwellings, dragged to [them] by the rite of dedica-
tion— or are they ready and willing? and do you not summon
them by any considerations of necessity ? Do they do this
unwillingly?5 and how can it be possible that they should be
compelled [to submit] to any necessity without their dignity

1 Deonerati proluvies podicis.

2 Lit., " incited by the truth of nature." The MS. and both Eonian
edd. read rf-, all others instincta, as above.

3 Lit, " the sacred dedication."

4 Lit., " concealed in the restraint of."

5 The MS. reads inrogati (the next letter being erased, having probably
been s redundant) si inviti, corrected in the margin of Ursinus and Oehler,
an above, -tin in.

BOOK vi.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 293

being impaired? With ready assent?1 And what do the
gods seek for in figures of earthenware that they should
prefer these prisons2 to their starry seats, — that, having been
all but fastened to them, they should ennoble3 earthenware
and the other substances of which images are made ?

18. What then ? Do the gods remain always in such
substances, and do they not go away to any place, even
though summoned by the most momentous affairs? or do
they have free passage, when they please to go any whither,
and to leave their own seats and images ? If they are under
the necessity of remaining, what can be more wretched than
they, what more unfortunate than if hooks and leaden bonds
hold them fast in this wise on their pedestals ? but [if] we
allow that they prefer [these images] to heaven and the starry
seats, they have lost their divine power.4 But if, on the con-
trary, when they choose, they fly forth, and are perfectly
free to leave the statues empty, the images will then at
some time cease to be gods, and it will be doubtful when
sacrifices should be offered, — when it is right and fitting to
withhold them. Oftentimes we see that by artists these
images are at one time made small, and reduced to the size
of the hand, at another raised to an immense height, and

1 Lit., " with the assent of voluntary compliance." " Do you say," or
some such expression, must be understood, as Arnobius is asking his
opponent to choose on which horn of the dilemma he wishes to be im-
paled.

2 Lit, "bindings."

8 So Geleuius, Canterus, Elm., Oberth., and Orelli, reading nobilitent.
No satisfactory emendation has been proposed, and contradictory accounts
are given as to the reading of the MS. Immediately after this sentence,
LB., followed by Orelli, inserts a clause from the next chapter. Cf.
the following note.

4 It will be seen that these words fit into the indirect argument of
Arnobius very well, although transposed in LB. to the end of last chap-
ter, and considered a gloss by Orelli and Hildebrand. " See the conse-
quences," Arnobius says, " of supposing that the gods do not quit these
images : not merely are they in a wretched case, but they must further
lose their power as divinities." Meursius, with more reason, transposes
the clause to the end of the next sentence, which would be justifiable if
accessary.

294 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vi.

built up to a wonderful size. In this way, then, it follows
that we should understand that the gods contract themselves
in1 little statuettes, and are compressed till they become
like2 a strange body; or, again, [that they] stretch them-
selves out to a great length, and extend to immensity in
images of vast bulk. So, then, if this is the case, in sitting
statues also the gods should be said to be seated, and in
standing ones to stand, to be running in those stretching
forward to run, to be hurling javelins in those [represented
as] casting [them], to fit and fashion themselves to their coun-
tenances, and to make themselves like8 the other character-
istics of the body formed by the [artist].

19. The gods dwell in images — each wholly in one, or
divided into parts, and into members? For neither is it
possible that there can be at one time one god in several
images, nor, again, divided into parts by his being cut up.4
For let us suppose that there are ten thousand images of
Vulcan in the whole world : is it possible at all, as I said,
that at one time one [deity] can be in all the ten thousand?
I do not think [so]. [Do you ask] wherefore? Because
things which are naturally single and unique, cannot become
many while the integrity of their simplicity5 is maintained.
And this they are further unable [to become] if the gods
have the forms of men, as your belief declares ; for either a
hand separated from the head, or a foot divided from the
body, cannot manifest the perfection of the whole, or it
must be said that parts can be the same as the whole, while
the whole cannot exist unless it has been made by gathering
together its parts. Moreover, if the same [deity] shall be
said to be in all [the statues], all reasonableness and sound-

1 Perhaps " into," as Arnobius sometimes uses the abl. after in in-
stead of the ace.

2 Lit., " compressed to the similitude of."

3 Lit., " to adapt their similitude to."

4 Lit., " a cutting taking place."

5 i.e. of their character as independent and not compounded. This
is precisely such an expression as that which closes the fourth book,
and its occurrence is therefore an additional ground for regarding the
earlier passage as genuine.

BOOK vi.] ARNOBIUS ADVEESUS GENTES. 205

ness is lost to the truth, if this is assumed that at one time
one can remain in [them] all ; or each of the gods must be
said to divide himself from himself, so that he is both himself
and another, not separated by any distinction, but himself
the same as another. But as nature rejects and spurns and
scorns this, it must either be said and confessed that there
are Vulcans without number, if we decide that he exists
and is in all the images ; or he will be in none, because he is
prevented by nature from being divided among several.

20. And yet, O you — if it is plain and clear to you that
the gods live, and that the inhabitants of heaven dwell in the
inner parts of the images, why do you guard, protect, and
keep them shut up under the strongest keys, and under fasten-
ings of immense size, under iron bars, bolts,1 and other such
things, and defend them with a thousand men and a thousand
women to keep guard, lest by chance some thief or noc-
turnal robber should creep in ? Why do you feed dogs in
the capitols ? 2 Why do you give food and nourishment to
geese ? Rather, if you are assured that the gods are there,
and that they do not depart to any place from their figures
and images, leave to them the care of themselves, let their
shrines be always unlocked and open ; and if anything is
secretly carried off by any one with reckless fraud, let them
show the might of divinity, and subject the sacrilegious
robbers to fitting punishments at the moment3 of their theft
and [wicked] deed. For it is unseemly, and subversive of
their power and majesty, to entrust the guardianship of the
highest deities to the care of dogs, and when you are seeking
for some means of frightening thieves so as to keep them
away, not to beg it from [the gods] themselves, but to set
and place it in the cackling of geese.

21. They say that Antiochus of Cyzicum took from its

1 Claustrls repagulis pessulis.

2 Cf. p. 198, n. 3. Geese as wells as dogs guarded the Capitol,
having been once, as the \vell-kiiown legend tells, its only guards
against the Gauls.

3 The MS., first four edd., and Elm. read nomine — "under the narca
of," corrected momine by Meursius and the rest.

296 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF £BooK vi.

shrine a statue of Jupiter made of gold ten1 cubits [high],
and set up in its place one made of copper covered with thin
plates of gold. If the gods are present, and dwell in their
own images, with what business, with what cares, had Jupiter
been entangled that he could not punish the wrong done to
himself, arid avenge his being substituted in baser metal?
When the famous Dionysius (but [it was] the younger) 2
despoiled Jupiter of his golden vestment, and put instead of
it one of wool, [and], when mocking [him] with pleasantries
also, he said that that [which he was taking away] was cold
in the frosts of winter, this warm, that that one was cumbrous
in summer, that this, again, was airy in hot weather, — where
was the king of the world that he did not show his presence
by some terrible deed, and recall the jocose buffoon to sober-
ness by bitter torments'? For why should I mention that
the dignity of ^Esculapius was mocked by him ? For when
Dionysius was spoiling him of his very ample beard, [which
was] of great weight and philosophic thickness,3 he said that
it was not right that a son sprung from Apollo, a father
smooth and beardless, and very like a mere boy,4 should be
formed with such a beard that it was left uncertain which
of them was father, which son, or rather whether they were
of the same6 race and family. Now, when all these things
were being done, and the robber was speaking with impious

1 So the MS., reading decem ; but as Clement says KevTixccfiizet wxuv,
we must either suppose that Arnobius mistook the Greek, or transcribed
it carelessly, or, with the margin of Ursinus, read quindecim — " fifteen."

2 Stewechius and Heraldus regard these words as spurious, and as
having originated in a gloss on the margin, scz. junior — " to wit, the
younger." Heraldus, however, changed his opinion, because Clement,
too, says, " Dionysius the younger." The words mean more than this,
however, referring probably to the fact that Cicero (de Nat. Dear. iii.
33, 34, 35) tells these and other stories of the elder Diouysius. To
this Arnobius calls attention as an error, by adding to Clement's phrase
" but."

3 Only rustics, old-fashioned people, and philosophers wore the beard
untrimmed ; the last class wearing it as a kind of distinctive mark,
just as Juvenal (iii. 15) speaks of a thick woollen cloak as marking a
philosopher.

* Impuberi. * Lit., " oue."

BOOK vi.] AENOB1US ADVERSUS GENTES. 297

mockery, if the deity was concealed in the statue consecrated
to his name and majesty, why did he not punish with just
and merited vengeance the affront of stripping his face of its
beard and disfiguring his countenance, and show by this,
both that he was himself present, and that he kept watch
over his temples and images without ceasing?

22. But you will perhaps say that the gods do not trouble
themselves about these losses, and do not think that there is
sufficient cause for them to come forth and inflict punish-
ment upon the offenders for their impious sacrilege.1 Neither,
then, if this is the case, do they wish to have these images,
which they allow to be plucked up and torn away with
impunity ; nay, on the contrary, they tell [us] plainly that
they despise these [statues], in which they do not care to
show that they were contemned, by taking any revenge.
Philostephanus relates in his Cypriaca, that Pygmalion,
king2 of Cyprus, loved as a woman an image of Venus,
which was held by the Cyprians holy and venerable from
ancient times,3 his mind, spirit, the light of his reason, and
his judgment being darkened ; and that he was wont in
his madness, just as if he were dealing with his wife, having
raised the deity to his couch, to be joined with it in embraces
and [face to] face, and to do other vain things, [carried away]
by a foolishly lustful imagination.4 Similarly, Posidippus,5
in the book which he mentions [to have been] written about
Gnidus and about its affairs,6 relates that a young man, of
noble birth (but he conceals his name), carried away with
love of the Venus because of which Gnidus is famous, joined
himself also in amorous lewdness to the image of the same
deity, stretched on the genial couch, and enjoying 7 the plea-
sures which ensue. To ask, again, in like manner : If the
powers of the gods above lurk in copper and the other sub-

1 Lit., " punishment of violated religion."

2 Clemens says merely " the Cyprian Pygmalion."

3 Lit., " of ancient sanctity and religion."

4 Lit., "imagination of empty lust." 5 Cf. ch. 13.

6 So Gelenius, reading rebus for the MS. and first ed. re a (MS. ab) se.
; Lit., " in the limits of."

298 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vi.

stances of which images have been formed, where in the world
was the one Venus and the other to drive far away from
them the lewd wantonness of the youths, and punish their
impious touch with terrible suffering?1 Or, as the goddesses
are gentle and of calmer dispositions, what would it have
been for them to assuage the furious joys of 2 the wretched
men, and to bring back their insane minds again to their

23. But perhaps, as you say, the goddesses took the greatest
pleasure in these lewd and lustful insults, and did not think
that an action requiring vengeance to be taken, which soothed
their minds, and which they knew was suggested to human
desires by themselves. But if the goddesses, the Venuses,
being endowed with rather calm dispositions, considered that
favour should be 'shown to the misfortunes of the blinded
[youths]; when the greedy flames so often consumed the
Capitol, and had destroyed the Capitoline Jupiter himself
with his wife and his daughter,3 where was the Thunderer at
that time to avert that calamitous fire, and preserve from de-
struction his property, and himself, and all his family 1 Where
was the queenly Juno when a violent fire destroyed her famous
shrine, and her priestess4 Chrysis in Argos? Where the
Egyptian Serapis, when by a similar disaster [his temple]
fell, burned to ashes, with all the mysteries, and Isis? Where
Liber Eleutherius, when [his temple fell] at Athens? Where
Diana, when [hers fell] at Ephesus ? Where Jupiter of
Dodona, when [his fell] at Dodona? Where, finally, the
prophetic Apollo, when by pirates and sea robbers he was
both plundered and set on fire,5 so that out of so many pounds

1 Lit., " agonizing restraint." 2 Lit, " to."

3 Cf. p. 198, n. 3.

4 So Clemens narrates ; but Thucydides (iv. 133) says that " straight-
way Chrysis flees by night for refuge to Phlious, fearing the Argives ;"
while Pausanius (ii. 59) says that she fled to Tegea, taking refuge there
at the altar of Minerva Alea.

5 From Varro's being mentioned, Oehler thinks that Arnobius must
refer to various marauding expeditions against the temples of Apollo on
the coasts and islands of the ^Egean, made at the time of the piratical
war. Clemens, however, speaks distinctly of the destruction of the

BOOK vi. I ARNOB1US ADVERSUS GENTES. 293

of gold, which ages without number had heaped up, he did
not have one scruple even to show to the swallows which
built under his eaves,1 as Varro says in his Saturce Menippece?2
It would be an endless task to write down what shrines have
been destroyed throughout the whole world by earthquakes
and tempests — what have been set on fire by enemies, and
by kings and tyrants — what have been stript bare by the
overseers and priests themselves, even though they have
turned suspicion away from them 8 — finally, what [have
been robbed] by thieves and Canacheni,4 opening [them] up,
though barred by unknown means;5 which, indeed, would
remain safe and exposed to no mischances, if the gods were
present to defend them, or had any care for their temples, as
is said. But now because they are empty, and protected by
no indwellers, Fortune has power over them, and they are
exposed to all accidents just as much as are all other things
which have not life.6

24. Here also the advocates of images are wont to say this
also, that the ancients knew well that images have no divine
nature, and that there is no sense in them, but that they
formed them profitably and wisely, for the sake of the un-
manageable and ignorant mob, which is the majority in
nations and in states, in order that a kind of appearance, as
it were, of deities being presented to them, from fear they
might shake off their rude natures, and, supposing that they

temple at Delphi (p. 46), and it is therefore probable that this is re-
ferred to, if not solely, at least along with those which Varro mentions.

1 Lit., " his visitors," hospitis.

8 Varro Menippeus, an emendation of Carrio, adopted in LB. and
Orelli for the MS. se thenipeus.

3 Lit., " suspicion being averted."

4 It has been generally supposed that reference is thus made to some
kind of thieves, which is probable enough, as Arnobius (end of next
chapter) classes all these plunderers as "tyrants, kings, robbers, and
nocturnal thieves ; " but it is impossible to say precisely what is meant.
Heraldus would read Saraceni — u Saracens."

5 Lit., "with obscurity of means." The phrase may refer either to
the defence or to the assault of temples by means of magic arts.

6 Lit., "interior motion."

300 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vi.

were acting in the presence of the gods, put * av> T their im-
pious deeds, and, changing their manners, lean* o act as
men ;2 and that august forms of gold and silver were sought
for them, for no other reason than that some po\v:r was
believed to reside in their splendour, such as not only to
dazzle the eyes, but even to strike terror into the mind itself
at the majestic beaming lustre. Now this might perhaps
seem to be said with some reason, if, after the temples of the
gods were founded, and their images set up, there were no
wicked man in the world, no villany at all, [if] justice,
peace, good faith, possessed the hearts of men, and no one
on earth were called guilty and guiltless, all being ignorant
of wicked deeds. But now when, on the contrary, all things
are full of wicked [men], the name of innocence has almost
perished, [and] every moment, every second, evil deeds,
till now unheard of, spring to light in myriads from the
wickedness of wrongdoers, how is it right to say that images
have been set up for the purpose of striking terror into the
mob, while, besides innumerable forms of crime and wicked-
ness,8 we see that even the temples .themselves are attacked
by tyrants, by kings, by robbers, and by nocturnal thieves,
and that these very gods whom antiquity fashioned and con-
secrated to cause terror, are carried away 4 into the caves of
robbers, in spite even of the terrible splendour of the gold 1 5
25. For what grandeur — if you look at the truth without
any prejudice6 — is there in these images7 of which they
speak, that the men of old should have had reason to hope
and think that, by beholding them, the vices of men could
be subdued, and their morals and wicked ways brought under
restraint?8 The reaping-hook, for example, which was

1 Lit., "lop away," deputarent, the reading of the MS., Hild., and
Oehler ; the rest reading deponerent — "lay aside."

2 Lit, " pass to human offices."

8 Lit., " crimes and wickednesses." 4 Lit., " go," vadere.

6 Lit., "with their golden and to-be-feared splendours themselves."

6 Lit., " and without any favour," gratificatione.

7 Lit., " what great [thing] have these images in them."

• So the sis., first four edd., Elir Jild., and Oehler, reading mores et

BOOK vi. 1 AKNOBWS ADVERSUS GENTES. 301

assigned to Saturn,1 was it to inspire mortals with fear, that
they should be willing to live peacefully, and to abandon
their malicious inclinations ? Janus, with double face, or
that spiked key by which he has been distinguished ; Jupiter,
cloaked and bearded, and holding in his right hand a piece of
wood shaped like a thunderbolt ; the cestus of Juno,2 or the
maiden lurking under a soldier's helmet; the mother of the
gods, with her timbrel ; the Muses, with their pipes and
psalteries ; Mercury, the winged slayer of Argus ; 2Escula-
pius, with his staff ; Ceres, with huge breasts, or the drinking
cup swinging in Liber's right hand ; Mulciber, with his work-
man's dress ; or Fortune, with her horn full of apples, figs,
or autumnal fruits; Diana, with half-covered thighs, or Venus
[perfectly] naked, exciting to lustful desire ; Anubis, with
his dog's face; or Priapus, of less importance3 than his own
genitals — [were these expected to make men afraid] ?

26. O dreadful forms of terror and4 frightful bugbears5
on account of which the human race was to be benumbed
for ever, to attempt nothing in its utter amazement, and to
restrain itself from every wicked and shameful act — little
sickles, keys, caps, pieces of wood, winged sandals, staves,
little timbrels, pipes, psalteries, breasts protruding and of
great size, little drinking cups, pincers, and horns filled with
fruit, the naked bodies of women, and huge veretra openly
exposed ! Would it not have been better to dance [and] to
sing, than calling it gravity and pretending to be serious, to
relate what is so insipid and so silly, that images6 were
formed by the ancients to check wrongdoing, and to [arouse]
the fears of the wicked and impious? Were the men of
that age and time, in understanding, so void of reason and
good sense, that they were kept back from, wicked actions,

mafe/cz'a, corrected in the others a maleficio — " morals withheld from
wickedness."

1 Cf. ch. xii.

2 The reference is probably to some statue or picture of Juno repre-
sented as girt with the girdle of Venus (//. xiv. 214).

3 Lit., "inferior." * Formidinum. 6 Terrores.
6 Or, perhaps, " relate that images so frigid and so awkward."

302 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vi.

just as if they were little boys, by the preternatural1 savage-
ness of masks, by grimaces also, and bugbears?2 And how
has this been so entirely changed, that though there are so
many temples in your states filled with images of all the
gods, the multitude of criminals cannot be resisted [even]
with so many laws and so terrible punishments, and their
audacity cannot be overcome3 by any means, and wicked
deeds, repeated again and again, multiply the more it is
striven by laws and [severe] judgments to lessen the number
of cruel deeds, and to quell them by the check [given by
means] of punishments ? But if images caused any fear to
men, the passing of laws would cease, nor would so many
kinds of tortures be established against the daring of the
guilty : now, however, because it has been proved and estab-
lished that the supposed4 terror which is said to flow
out from the images is in reality vain, recourse has been
had to the ordinances of laws, by which there might be a
dread [of punishment which should be] most certain fixed
in men's minds also, and a condemnation settled ; to which
these very images also owe it that they yet stand safe, and
secured by some respect being yielded to them.

27. Since it has been sufficiently shown, as far as there
has been opportunity, how vain it is to form images, the
course of our argument requires that we should next speak as
briefly as possible, and without any periphrasis, about sacri-
fices, about the slaughter and immolation of victims, about
pure wine, about incense, and about all the other things which
are provided on such occasions.6 For with respect to this
you have been in the habit of exciting against us the most

1 The MS. and both Roman edd. read monstruosissima-s torvitate-s annis;
corrected by Gelenius and later edd. monstruosissima torvitate animos,
and by Salmasius, Orelli, Hild., and Oehler, as above, m. t. sannis.

2 The MS., first four edd., Elm., and Oberthiir read manus, which, with
animos read in most (cf. preceding note), would run, "that they were
even kept back, as to (i.e. in) minds and hands, from wicked actions by
the preternatural savageness of masks." The other edd. read with Sal-
masius, as above, maniis.

8 Lit., " cut away." * Lit, " opinion of."

* Lit., " in that part of years."

BOOK vi.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 303

violent ill-will, of calling us atheists, and inflicting upon us
the punishment of death, even by savagely tearing us to
pieces with wild beasts, on the ground that we pay very little
respect1 to the gods ; which, indeed, we admit that we do,
not from contempt or scorn of the divine,2 but because we
think that such powers require nothing of the kind, and are
not possessed by desires for such things.

1 Lit., " attribute least" 8 Lit., " divine spurning.**

BOOK VII.

ARGUMENT.

To vindicate the Christians from any charge of impiety because they
offered no sacrifices, Arnobius quotes Varro's opinion, that the true gods
could npt wish for these, whilst the images could care for nothing (1).
The true gods, though unknown because unseen, must be, so far as
then* divinity is concerned, exactly alike, so as never to have been be-
gotten, or be dependent on anything external to themselves (2). But if
this is the case, on what ground ought sacrifices to be offered — as food
for the gods ? but whatever needs help from without, must be liable to
perish if this is withheld. Moreover, unless the gods feed on the steam
and vapour of the sacrifices, it is plain that they receive nothing, as the
fire on the altar destroys what is placed on it ; whilst, finally, if the
gods are incorporeal, it is difficult to see how they can be supported by
corporeal substances (3). It might indeed be supposed that the gods
took some pleasure in having victims slain to them ; but this is exposed
to two objections, — that to feel pleasure necessitates the capacity of
feeling pain, whilst these two states are becoming only in the weakness
of mortals, and require the possession of the senses, which can only
accompany a bodily form, from which the gods are supposed to be free ;
and that, secondly, to feel pleasure in the sufferings of animals, is hardly
consistent with the divine character (4). It was commonly held that
sacrifices propitiated the deities, and appeased their wrath. Against this
Arnobius protests as utterly inconsistent with the view of the divine
nature, which he conceives it necessary to maintain so persistently (5).
But conceding this point, for the sake of argument, two alternatives
are proposed : such sacrifices should be offered either before or after the
divine wrath is excited. If the former is chosen, this is to represent the
gods as wild beasts to be won from their savageness by throwing to them
sops, or that on which to vent their rage ; if the latter, without waiting
to discuss whether the divine greatness would be offended by a creature
so ignorant and unimportant as man (6), or what laws the gods have
established on earth by the violation of which they might be enraged
(7), it is asked why the death of a pig, a chicken, or an ox should
change the disposition of a god, and whether the gods can be bribed into
a gracious mood. Moreover, if the divine pardon is not given freely, it
would be better to withhold it, as men sin more readily when they be-
3C4

BOOK vii.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 305

lieve that they can purchase pardon for themselves (8). A protest is
put into the mouth of an ox against the injustice of compelling cattle
to pay the penalty of men's offences (9). Arnobius then points out
that the doctrine of fate, that all things proceed from causes, and that
therefore the course of events cannot be changed, does away with all
need to appeal to the gods to render services which are not in their
power (10). Finally, the miseries of men are a conclusive proof that
the gods cannot avert evil (11), otherwise they are ungrateful in allow-
ing misfortunes to overwhelm their worshippers. A brief resume is
given of the preceding arguments, illustrated by the cases of two men,
of whom one has but little to give, whilst the other loads the altars with
his offerings ; and of two nations at war with each other whose gifts
are equal, — which show how untenable the hypothesis is, that sacrifices
purchase the favour of the gods (12).

Another pretext urged was, that the gods were honoured by the
offering of sacrifices. How could this be ? Honour consists in some-
thing yielded and something received (13). But what could the gods
receive from men ? how could their greatness be increased by men's
actions (14) ? The true deities should indeed be honoured by enter-
taining thoughts worthy of them ; but what kind of honour is it to slay
animals before them, to offer them blood, and send up wreaths of smoke
into the air (15) ? Still, if such horrid sights and smells were thought
pleasing to the gods, why were certain animals and certain things
chosen to be sacrificed, and not others (16) ? The absurdity of offering
to the gods the food used by us, is shown by supposing that pigs, dogs,
asses, swallows, and other birds and beasts, were to sacrifice to men, in
like manner, flies, ants, hay, bones, and the filth even which some of
them eat (17). It is then asked why to one god bulls were sacrificed,
to another kids, to a third sheep ; to some white, to others black, to
some male, to others female animals (18). The usual answer was, that
to the gods male victims, to the goddesses females, were sacrificed, which
brings up again the question as to sex amongst the deities. But pass-
ing this by, what is there in difference of colour to make the gods
pleased or displeased as the victim might be white or black ? The gods
of heaven, it might be said, delight in cheerful colours, those of Hades in
gloomy ones. In the time of Arnobius, however, few beh'eved that there
was any such place as Hades ; and if this were so, there could be no gods
there (19). But conceding this point also, and admitting that to their
savage dispositions gloomy colours might be pleasing, Arnobius suggests
that only the skins of animals are black, and that therefore the flesh,
bones, etc. should not be offered, nor the wine, milk, oil, and other
things used in sacrifices which are not black (20). It is next asked
why certain animals were sacrificed to certain gods, and not to others ;
to which the only answer is, that it had been so determined by the men
of former times (21). Or if it be suggested that a reason is seen in the

ARNOB. U

306 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boon vn.

sacrificing of fruitful and barren victims to mother earth and the virgin
Minerva, such reasoning requires that musicians should be sacrificed to
Apollo, physicians to .^Esculapius, and orators to Mercury (22). Ee-
turning to the argument, that sacrifices should be offered to the gods to
win favours from the good, to avert the malice of the bad, Arnobius
points out, first, that it is impossible that there should be evil deities ;
and, secondly, that to suppose that the sacrifices were effectual, is to
suppose that by them an evil deity could be changed into a good, and
that, through their being withheld, a beneficent deity might become
malevolent ; which is as absurd as if one were to expect, on caressing a
viper or scorpion, that he would escape being stung (23). He proceeds
to call attention to various kinds of puddings, cakes, pottages, and
other delicacies used in ceremonies, asking with scorn for what end
they were employed (24, 25). It is next pointed out, that no reason
can be offered for the use of incense, which was certainly unknown in
the heroic ages, and unused even in Etruria, the mother of superstition,
and could not have been burned on the altar until after the time of
Numa. If, therefore, the ancients were not guilty in neglecting to burn
incense, it could not be necessary to do so (26). Moreover, of what
service was incense to the gods ? If they were honoured by its being
burned, why should not any gum be so used (27) ? If incense is pre-
ferred because of its sweet smell, the gods must have noses, and share
man's nature. Further, they may not be affected as we are by odours,
and what is pleasant to us may be disagreeable to them ; and vice versa.
But such considerations are inadmissible" with regard to the gods, for
reason demands that they should be immaterial, and that therefore they
should not be affected by odours (28). Arnobius next shows that the
use of wine in ceremonies was as little based on reason as that of
incense, for deities cannot be affected by thirst (29) ; and how could
they be honoured with that which excites to vice and impairs man's
reason (30) ? The formula with which libations were made is ridiculed
as niggardly and stingy (31) ; and the wreaths and garlands worn by
the celebrants, and the noise and clangour of their musical instruments,
are also turned into mockery (32) ; whilst it is shown that, to speak of
the gods being honoured by the games dedicated to them, is to say that
they were honoured by being publicly insulted in the ribald plays which
were acted at these times, and by licentious and lustful conduct (33).
Ah1 these detestable opinions originated in man's inability to under-
stand what the deity really is, and in his therefore attributing to the
divine nature what belongs to himself alone (34). In the three chap-
ters which follow, he contrasts the opinions of heathen and Christians
as to the divine nature, showing that to the former nothing seemed too
bad to be attributed to their gods ; while the latter, not professing to
worship the gods, insulted them less by not holding such opinions
(35-37).

BOOK vii.] AENOBIUS ADVEESUS GENTES. 307

The pestilences and other calamities are next discussed, which were
supposed to have been sent by the gods as punishments for sacrifices
or other honours withheld from them (38). Thus it was related that,
the ludi Circenses having been violated, a pestilence ensued until they
were once more celebrated in due form (39). Other pestilences also were
got rid of, and enemies overcome, when gods had been brought across
the seas and established at Home ; while, on the Capitol's being struck by
lightning, evil was averted only by rearing towards the east an image
of Jupiter in a higher place (40). But how can the story of the ludi
Circenses be believed, which represents Jupiter as delighting in childish
amusements, angry without cause, and punishing those who had done
no wrong (41, 42), and going so far astray in making choice of a man
to declare the cause of his anger (43) ? In like manner Arnobius dis-
cusses the transportation of JCsculapius, in the form of a serpent, from
Epidaurus to the island in the Tiber, after which it was said the people
were restored to health (44-46). In reply to the question how it was
that the plague ceased if the god did not really come to Rome, Arno-
bius asks how it was that, if the god did come to Rome, he did not
preserve the city from all disease and pestilence thereafter (47) ; and as
to the argument, that this did not happen because in later ages wicked-
ness and impiety prevailed, reminds his opponent that at no epoch was
Rome a city of the good and pious (48). So, too, the Great Mother
was said to have been brought from Phrygia to enable the Romans to
overcome Hannibal. But all that was brought was a stone (49) ; and
are we to suppose that Hannibal was overcome by a stone, and not by
the energy, resolution, and courage of the Romans ? But if the Great
Mother really drove Hannibal from Italy, why did she delay doing so
until carried over the seas to Rome (50) ? But without insisting on
these objections, who will call her a goddess who is perfectly capri-
cious, abandons her worshippers to settle amongst those who are more
powerful, and loves to be in the midst of slaughter and bloodshed,
whilst the true gods must be perfectly just and equally well disposed to
all men (51)?

1 HAT, then,1 some one will say, do you think
that no sacrifices at all should be offered ?
To answer you not with our own, but with
your Varro's opinion — none. Why so ? Be-
cause, he says, the true gods neither wish nor demand these ;

1 If this seems rather an abrupt beginning, it must be remembered
that by some accident the introduction to the seventh book has been
tacked on as a last chapter to the sixth, where it is just as out of place
as here it would be in keeping.

303 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vn.

while those1 which are made of copper, earthenware, gyp-
sum, or marble, care much less for these things, for they
have no feeling; and you are not blamed2 if you do not offer
them, nor do you win favour if you do. No sounder opinion
can be found, [none] truer, and [one] which any one may
adopt, although he may be stupid and very hard [to con-
vince]. For who is so obtuse as either to slay victims in
sacrifice to those who have no sense, or to think that they
should be given to those who are removed far from them in
their nature and blessed state ?

2. Who are the true gods ? you say. To answer you in
common and simple language, we do not know;8 for how
can we know who those are whom we have never seen ?
We have been accustomed to hear from you that an infinite
number4 are gods, and are reckoned among5 the deities;
but if these exist 6 anywhere, and [are] true gods, as Teren-
tius7 believes, it follows as a consequence, that they corre-
spond to their name ; that is, that they are such as we all
see that they should be, [and that they are] worthy to be
called by this name ; nay, more (to make an end without
many words), [that they are such] as is the Lord of the uni-
verse, and [the King] omnipotent Himself, whom we have
knowledge and understanding [enough] to speak of as the
true God when we are led to mention His name. For one

1 Lit., " those, moreover."

2 Lit., " nor is any blame contracted."

3 On this Heraldus remarks, that it shows conclusively how slight
was the acquaintance with Christianity possessed by Arnobius, when he
could not say who were the true gods. This, however, is to forget that
Arnobius is not declaring his own opinions here, but meeting his adver-
saries on their own ground. He knows who the true God is — the source
and fountain of all being, and framer of the universe (ii. 2), and if there
are any lesser powers called gods, what their relation to Him must be
(iii. 2, 3) ; but he does not know any such gods himself (cf. the next
sentence even), and is continually reminding the heathen that they
know these gods just as little.

4 Lit., " as many as possible."
6 Lit., " in the series of."

6 Lit., " are."

1 i.e. M. Terentius Varro, mentioned in the last chapter.

BOOK vn.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 309

god differs from another in nothing as respects his divinity ;*
nor can that which is one in kind be less or more in its parts
while its own qualities remain unchanged.2 Now, as this
is certain, it follows that they should never have been be-
gotten, but should be immortal, seeking nothing from with-
out, and not drawing any earthly pleasures from the re-
sources of matter.

3. So, then, if these things are so, we desire to learn this,
first, from you — what is the cause, what the reason, that you
offer them sacrifices ; [and] then, what gain comes to the
gods themselves from, this, and remains to their advantage.
For whatever is done should have a cause, and should not
be disjoined from reason, so as to be lost3 among useless
works, and tossed about among vain and idle uncertainties.4
Do the gods of heaven5 live on these sacrifices, and must
materials be supplied to maintain the union of their parts ?
And what man is there so ignorant of what a god is, cer-
tainly, as to think that they are maintained by any kind of
nourishment, and that it is the food given to them 6 which
causes them to live and endure throughout their endless
immortality ? For whatever is upheld by causes and things
external to itself, must be mortal and on the way to destruc-
tion, when anything on which it lives begins to be wanting.
Again, [it is impossible to suppose that any one believes this],
because we see that of these things which are brought to
their altars, nothing is added to and reaches the substance of
the deities ; for either incense is given, and is lost melting on
the coals, or the life only of the victim is offered to the gods,7

1 Lit., " in that in which he is a god."

2 Lit., " uniformity of quality being preserved."

3 The MS. and edd. read ut in operibus feratur cassis — "so as to be
borne among," emended by Hild. and Oehler teratur — "worn away
among."

4 Lit., " in vain errors of inanity."

5 The MS. and edd. have here forte — "perchance."

6 Lit., " gift of food."

7 Or perhaps, simply, " the sacrifice is a living one," animalis est
Tiostia. Macrobius, however (Sat. iii. 5), quotes Trebatius as saying
that there were two kinds of sacrifices, in one of which the entrails were

310 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vn.

and its blood is licked up by dogs ; or if any flesh is placed
upon the altars, it is set on fire in like manner, and [is] de-
stroyed, [and] falls into ashes, — unless perchance the god
seizes upon the souls of the victims, or snuffs up eagerly the
fumes and smoke [which rise] from the blazing altars, and
feeds upon the odours which the burning flesh gives forth,
still wet with blood, and damp with its former juices.1 But
if a god, as is said, has no body, and cannot be touched at
all, how is it possible that that which has no body should be
nourished by things pertaining to the body, — that what is
mortal should support what is immortal, and assist and give
vitality to that which it cannot touch ? This reason for sacri-
fices is not valid, therefore, as it seems ; nor can it be said by
any one that sacrifices are kept up for this reason, that the
deities are nourished by them, and supported by feeding on
them.

4. If perchance it is not this,2 are victims not slain in sac-
rifice to the gods, and cast upon their flaming altars to give
them 3 some pleasure and delight ? And can any man per-
suade himself that the gods become mild as they are exhila-
rated by pleasures, that they long for sensual enjoyment, and,
like some base creatures, are affected by agreeable sensations,
and charmed and tickled for the moment by4 a pleasant-
ness which soon passes away? For that which is overcome
by pleasure must be harassed by its opposite, sorrow ; nor
[can that be] free from the anxiety of grief, which trembles

examined that they might disclose the divine will, while in the other the
life only was consecrated to the deity. This is more precisely stated by
Servius (^n. iii. 231), who says that the Jiostia animalis was only slain,
that in other cases the blood was poured on the altars, that in others
part of the victim, and in others the whole animal, was burned. It is
probable, therefore, that Arnobius uses the words here in their technical
meaning, as the next clause shows that none of the flesh was offered,
while the blood was allowed to fall to the ground.

1 i.e. the juices which formerly flowed through the living body.

2 The heathen opponent is supposed to give up his first reason, that
the sacrifices provided food for the gods, and to advance this new sug-
gestion, that they were intended for their gratification merely

3 Lit, " for the sake of."

4 Lit., " with the fleeting tickling of "

BOOK VIL] AENOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 311

with joy, and is elated capriciously with gladness.1 But the
gods should be free from both passions, if we would have
them to be everlasting, and freed from the weakness of
mortals. Moreover, every pleasure is, as it were, a kind of
flattery of the body, and is addressed to the five well-known
senses ; but if the gods above feel it,2 they must partake also
of those bodies through which there is a way to the senses,
and a door [by which] to receive pleasures. Lastly, what
pleasure is it to take delight in the slaughter of harmless
creatures, to have the ears ringing often with their piteous
bellowings, to see rivers of blood, the life fleeing away with
the blood, and the secret parts having been laid open, not
only the intestines to protrude with the excrements, but
also the heart still bounding with the life left in it, and the
trembling, palpitating veins in the viscera ? We half-savage
men, nay rather (to say with more candour what it is truer
and more candid to say), we savages, whom unhappy necessity
and bad habit have trained to take these as food, are some-
times moved with pity for them ; we ourselves accuse and
condemn ourselves when the thing is seen and looked into
thoroughly, because, neglecting the law which is binding on
men, we have broken through the bonds which naturally
united us at the beginning.3 Will4 any one believe that the
gods, [who are] kind, beneficent, gentle, are delighted and
filled with joy by the slaughter of cattle, if ever they fall and
expire pitiably before their altars ? 5 And there is no cause,
then, for pleasure in sacrifices, as we see, nor is there a
reason why they should be offered, since there is no pleasure
[afforded by them] ; and if perchance there is some,6 it has
been shown that it cannot in any way belong to the gods.
5. We have next to examine the argument which we hear

1 Lit., "with the levities of gladnesses." 2 i.e. pleasure.

5 Naturalis mitii coitsoriia.

4 So the MS. and first ed., according to Oehler, reading cred-e-t, the
others -i " does."

5 Lit., " these."

6 Arnobius says tbat the sacrifices give no pleasure to any being, or
at least, if that is not strictly true, that they give none to the gods.

312 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vn.

continually coming from the lips of the common people,
and [find] embedded in popular conviction, that sacrifices are
offered to the gods of heaven for this purpose, that they may
lay aside their anger and passions, and may be restored to a
calm and placid tranquillity, the indignation of their fiery
spirits being assuaged. And if we remember the definition
which we should always bear steadily in mind, that all agi-
tating feelings are unknown to the gods, the consequence is,
a belief1 that the gods are never angry ; nay, rather, that no
passion is further from them than that which, approaching
most nearly to [the spirit of] wild beasts and savage creatures,
agitates those who suffer it with tempestuous feelings, and
brings them into danger of destruction. For whatever is
harassed by any kind of disturbance,2 is, it is clear, capable
of suffering, and frail ; that which has been subjected to
suffering and frailty must be mortal; but anger harasses
and destroys8 those who are subject to it: therefore that
should be called mortal which has been made subject to the
emotions of anger. But yet we know that the gods should
be never-dying, and should possess an immortal nature ; and
if this is clear and certain, anger has 'been separated far from
them and from their state. On no ground, then, is it fitting
to wish to appease that in the gods above which you see
cannot suit their blessed state.

6. But let us allow, as you wish, that the gods are accus-
tomed to such disturbance, and that sacrifices are offered
arid sacred solemnities performed to calm it, when, then, is
it fitting that these offices should be made use of, or at what
time should they be given ? — before they are angry and
roused, or when they have been moved and displeased
even?4 If we must meet them [with sacrifices] before
[their anger is roused], lest they become enraged, you are
bringing forward wild beasts to us, not gods, to which it is

1 So the MS., LB., Oberthiir, Orelli, Hild., and Oehler, reading consec-,
for which the rest read consen-taneum est credere — " it is fitting to be-
lieve."

2 Lit., " motion of anything." * Cf. i. 18.
4 Lit, " set in indignations."

BOOK vii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 313

customary to toss food, upon which they may rage madly,
and turn their desire to do harm, lest, having been roused,
they should rage and burst the barriers of their dens. But
if these sacrifices are offered to satisfy1 the gods when
already fired and burning with rage, I do not inquire, I do
not consider, whether that happy 2 and sublime greatness of
spirit which belongs to the deities is disturbed by the offences
of little men, and wounded if a creature, blind and ever
treading among clouds of ignorance, has committed any
blunder, — said [anything] by which their dignity is impaired.

7. But neither do I demand that this should be said, or
that I should be told what causes the gods have for their
anger against men, that having taken offence they must be
soothed. [I do ask, however,] Did they ever ordain any laws
for mortals ? and was it ever settled by them what it was
fitting for them to do, or what it was not ? what they should
pursue, what avoid ; or even by what means they wished
themselves to be worshipped, so that they might pursue with
the vengeance of their wrath what was done otherwise than
they had commanded, and might be disposed, if treated con-
temptuously, to avenge themselves on the presumptuous and
transgressors ? As I think, nothing was ever either settled
or ordained by them, since neither have they been seen, nor
has it been possible for it to be discerned very clearly
whether there are any.3 What justice is there, then, in the
gods of heaven being angry for any reason with those to
whom they have neither deigned at any time to show that
they existed, nor given nor imposed any laws which they
wished to be honoured by them and perfectly observed 1 4

8. But this, as I said, I do not mention, but allow it to pass

1 Lit., " if this satisfaction of sacrifices is offered to."

2 So the MS. and most edd., reading laeta, for which Ursinus suggested
lauta — "splendid," and Heraldus elata — " exalted."

3 It is perhaps possible so to translate the MS. neque si sunt ulli aper-
tissima potuit cognilione dignosci, retained by Orelli, Hild., and Oehler,
in which case si sunt ulli must be taken as the subject of the clause.
The other edd., from regard to the construction, read visi — " nor, if they
have been seen, has it been possible."

4 Lit., " kept with inviolable observance."

314 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK VIL

away in silence. This one thing I ask, above all, What reason
is there if I kill a pig, that a god changes his state of mind,
and lays aside his angry feelings and frenzy ; that if I con-
sume a pullet, a calf under his eyes and on his altars, he
forgets the wrong [which I did to him], and abandons com-
pletely all sense of displeasure? What passes from this act1
to [modify] his resentment ? Or of what service2 is a goose,
a goat, or a peacock, that from its blood relief is brought to
the angry [god] ? Do the gods, then, make insulting them
a matter of payment ? and as little boys, to [induce them to]
give up their fits of passion 3 and desist from their wailings,
get little sparrows, dolls, ponies, puppets,3 with which they
may be able to divert themselves, do the immortal gods in
such wise receive these gifts from you, that for them they
may lay aside their resentment, and be reconciled to those
who offended them ? And yet I thought that the gods — if
only it is right to believe that they are really moved by
anger — lay aside their anger and resentment, and forgive
the sins of the guilty, without any price or reward. For
this belongs specially to deities, to be generous in forgiving,
and to seek no return for their gifts.4 But if this cannot be,
it would be much wiser that they should continue obstinately
offended, than that they should be softened by being cor-
rupted with bribes. For the multitude increases of those
who sin, when there is hope given of paying for their sin ;
and there is little hesitation to do wrong, when the favour of
those who pardon [offences] may be bought.

9. So, if some ox, or any animal you please, which is
slain to mitigate and appease the fury of the deities, were to
take a man's voice and speak these 6 words : Is this, then, O
Jupiter, or whatever god thou art, humane or right, or
should it be considered at all just, that when another has

1 Lit., " work." 2 Lit., " remedy."

3 So Panes seems to be generally understood, i.e. images of Pan used
as playthings by boys, and very much the same thing as the puppets —
ptipuli — already mentioned.

4 Lit., " to have liberal pardons and free concessions."
* Lit., " in these."

BOOK vi!.] AENOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 315

sinned I should be killed, and that you should allow satis-
faction to be made to you with my blood, although I never
did you wrong, never wittingly or unwittingly did violence
to your divinity and majesty, being, as thou knowest, a dumb
creature, not departing from x the simplicity of my nature,
nor inclined to be fickle in my 2 manners ? Did I ever cele-
brate your games with too little reverence and care ? did I
drag forward a dancer so that thy deity was offended ? did
I swear falsely by thee ? did I sacrilegiously steal your pro-
perty and plunder your temples ? did I uproot the most
sacred groves, or pollute and profane some hallowed places
by founding private houses ? What, then, is the reason
that the crime of another is atoned for with my blood, and
that my life and innocence are made to pay for wickedness
with which I have nothing to do 1 Is it because I am a base
creature, and am not possessed of reason and wisdom, as
these declare who call themselves men, and by their ferocity
make themselves beasts ? 3 Did not the same nature both
beget and form me from the same beginnings ? Is it not
one breath of life which sways both them and me ? Do I
not respire and see, and am I not affected by the other
senses just as they are ? They have livers, lungs, hearts,
intestines, bellies; and do not I have as many members'?
They love their young, and come together to beget children ;
and do not I both take care to procure offspring, and delight
in it when it has been begotten ? But they have reason,
and utter articulate sounds ; and how do they know whether
I do what I do for my own reasons, and whether that sound
which I give forth is my kind of words, and is understood
by us alone? Ask piety whether it is more just that I
should be slain, that I should be killed, or that man should
be pardoned and be safe from punishment for what he has
done I Who formed iron into a sword ? was it not man ?
Who [brought] disaster upon races ; who imposed slavery
upon nations'? was it not man? Who mixed deadly draughts,
and gave them to his parents, brothers, wives, friends ? was

1 Lit., " following." 2 Lit., " to varieties of manifold."

8 Lit., " leap into."

31 G THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vn.

it not man ? Who found out or devised so many forms of
wickedness, that they can hardly be related in ten thousand
chronicles of years, or [even] of days ? was it not man ? Is
not this, then, cruel, monstrous, and savage ? Does it not
seem to you, O Jupiter, unjust and barbarous that I should
be killed, that I should be slain, that you may be soothed,
and the guilty find impunity ?

It has been established that sacrifices are offered in vain
for this purpose then, viz. that the angry deities may be
soothed ; since reason has taught us that the gods are not
angry at any time, and that they do not wish one thing to be
destroyed, to be slain for another, or offences against them-
selves to be annulled by the blood of an innocent creature.

10. But perhaps some one will say, We give to the gods
sacrifices and other gifts, that, being made willing in a measure
to grant our prayers, they may give us prosperity and avert
from us evil, cause us to live always happily, drive away
grief truly, [and any evils] which threaten us from acci-
dental circumstances. This point demands great care ; nor
is it usual either to hear or to believe what is so easily said.
For the whole company of the learned will straightway
swoop upon [us], who, asserting and proving that whatever
happens, happens according to [the decrees of] fate, snatch
out of our1 hands that opinion, and assert that we are putting
our trust in vain beliefs. Whatever, they will say, has been
done in the world, is being done, and shall be done, has
been settled and fixed in time past, and has causes which
cannot be moved, by means of which events have been
linked together, and form an unassailable chain of unalter-
able necessity between the past and the future. If it has
been determined and fixed what evil or good should befall
each person, it is already certain ; but if this is certain and
fixed, there is no room for all the help given by the gods,
their hatred, [and] favours. For they are just as unable to do
for you that which cannot be done, as to prevent that from

1 Lit., "from the hands to us," nobis, the reading of the MS., both
Roman edd., Gelenius, LB., and Oehler ; for which the rest give volis —
" out of your hands."

BOOK vii.] AENOBIUS ADVEESUS GENTES. 317

being done which must happen, except that they will be able,
if they choose, to depreciate somewhat powerfully that belief
which you entertain, so that they l say that even the gods
themselves are worshipped by you in vain, and that the sup-
plications with which you address them are superfluous. For
as they are unable to turn aside the course [of events], and
change what has been appointed by fate, what reason, what
cause, is there to wish to weary and deafen the ears of those
in whose help you cannot trust at your utmost need ?

11. Lastly, if the gods drive away sorrow and grief, if
they bestow joy and pleasure, how2 are there in the world
so many 3 and so wretched men, whence [come] so many un-
happy ones, who lead a life of tears in the meanest condition?
Why are not those free from calamity who every moment,
every instant, load and heap up the altars with sacrifices ?
Do we not see that some of them (say [the learned]) are the
seats of diseases, the light of their eyes quenched, and their
ears stopped, that they cannot move with their feet, that
they live [mere] trunks without [the use of] their hands,
that they are swallowed up, overwhelmed, [and] destroyed
by conflagrations, shipwrecks, and disasters;4 that, having
been stripped of immense fortunes, they support themselves
by labouring for hire, [and] beg for alms at last ; that they
are exiled, proscribed, always in the midst of sorrow, over-
come by the loss of children, [and] harassed by other mis-
fortunes, the kinds and forms of which no enumeration can
comprehend ? But assuredly this would not occur if the
gods, who had been laid under obligation, were able to ward
off, to turn aside, those evils from those who merited [this
favour]. But now, because in these mishaps there is no
room [for the interference of the gods], but all things are
brought about5 by inevitable necessity, the appointed course
of events goes on and accomplishes that which has been once
determined.

12. Or the gods of heaven should be said to be ungrate-

1 i.e. the learned men referred to above. 2 Lit., " whence."
8 Lit., " so innumerable." 4 Lit., "ruins."
6 So Canterus suggests conf-iunt for the MS. confic "bring about."

318 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vn.

ful if, while they have power to prevent it, they suffer an
unhappy race to be involved in so many hardships and disas-
ters. But perhaps they may say something of importance
[in answer to this], and not such as should be received by
deceitful, fickle, and scornful ears. This point, however,
because it would require too tedious and prolix discussion,1
we hurry past unexplained and untouched, content to have
stated this alone, that you give to your gods dishonourable
reputations if you assert that on no other condition do they
bestow blessings and turn away what is injurious, except
they have been first bought over with the blood of she-goats
and sheep, and with the other things which are put upon
their altars. For it is not fitting, in the first place, that the
power of the deities and the surpassing eminence of the
celestials should be believed to keep their favours on sale,
first to receive [a price], and then to bestow [them] ; [and]
then, which is much more unseemly, that they aid no one
unless they receive [their demands], and that they suffer the
most wretched to undergo whatever perils may befall them,2
while they could ward [these] off, and come to their aid. If
of two who are sacrificing, one is a scoundrel,3 and rich, the
other of small fortune, but worthy of praise for his integrity
and goodness, — if the former should slay a hundred oxen,
and as many ewes with their lambkins, the poor man burn a
little incense, and a small piece of some odorous substance, —
will it not follow that it should be believed that, if only the
deities bestow nothing except when rewards are first offered,
they will give their favour 4 to the rich man, turn their eyes
away from the poor, whose gifts were restricted not by his

1 Lit., " it is a thing of long and much speech."

2 Lit., "the fortunes of perils."

3 The MS. reading is hoc est unus, corrected honestus — " honourable "
(which makes the comparison pointless, because there is no reason why
a rich man, if good, should not be succoured as well as a poor), in all
edd., except Oehler, who reads seclestus, which departs too far from the
MS. Perhaps we should read, as above, inhonestus.

4 So the MS., LB., Hild., and Oehler, and the other edd., adding et
aux'dlum — " and help."

BOOK vii. J ARNOBIUS ADVEBSUS GENTES. 319

spirit, but by the scantiness of his means'?1 For where the
giver is venal and mercenary, there it must needs be that
favour is granted according to the greatness of the gift [by
•which it is purchased], and that a favourable decision is
given to him from whom 2 far the greater reward and bribe,
[though this be] shameful, flows to him who gives it.3 What
if two nations, on the other hand, arrayed against each other
in war, enriched the altars of the gods with equal sacrifices,
and were to demand that their power and help should be
given to them, the one against the other: must it not, again,
be believed that, if they are persuaded to be of service by
rewards, they are at a loss between both sides, are struck
motionless, and do not perceive what to do, since they under-
stand that their favour has been pledged by the acceptance
of the sacrifices ? For either they will give assistance to
this side and to that, which is impossible, for [in that case]
they will fight themselves against themselves, strive against
their own favour and wishes ; or they will do nothing to aid
either nation4 after the price [of their aid] has been paid
and received, which is very wicked. All this infamy, there-
fore, should be removed far from the gods ; nor should it be
said at all that they are won over by rewards and payments
to confer blessings, and remove what is disagreeable, if only
they are true gods, and worthy to be ranked under this name.
For either whatever happens, happens inevitably, and there
is no place in the gods for ambition and favour ; or if fate
is excluded and got rid of, it does not belong to the celestial
dignity to sell the boon of its services,5 and the conferring of
its bounties.

13. We have shown sufficiently, as I suppose, that victims,
and the things which go along with them, are offered in vain

1 Lit., " whom not his mind, but the necessity of his property, made
restricted."

2 Lit., " inclines thither whence." 3 i.e. the decision.
4 Lit., " both nations."

6 Lit., " the favours of good work," boni operisfavor-es et, the reading
of Hild. and Oehler (other edd. -em— "the favour of its service") for
MS. jabore sed.

320 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vir.

to the immortal gods, because they are neither nourished by
them, nor feel any pleasure, nor lay aside their auger and
resentment, so as either to give good fortune, or to drive
away and avert the opposite. We have now to examine
that point also which has been usually asserted by some, and
applied to forms of ceremony. For they say that these
sacred rites were instituted to do honour to the gods of
heaven, and that these things which they do, they do to
show [them] honour, and to magnify the powers of the
deities by them. What if they were to say, in like manner,
that they keep awake and sleep, walk about, stand still, write
something, and read, to give honour to the gods, and make
them more glorious in majesty? For what substance is there
added to them from the blood of cattle, and from the other
things which are prepared in sacrificing? what power is
given and added to them? For all honour, which is said
lo be offered by any one, and to be yielded to reverence for
a greater being, is of a kind having reference to the other ;
and consists of two parts, of the concession of the giver, and
the increase of honour of the receiver. As, if any one, on
seeing a man famed for his very great power1 and authority,
were to make way for him, to stand up, to uncover his head,
and leap down from his carriage, then, bending forward to
salute him with slavish servility and2 trembling agitation, I
see what is aimed at in showing such respect : by the bow-
ing down of the one, very great [honour] is given to the
other, and he is made to appear great whom the respect of
an inferior exalts and places above his own rank.3

14. But all this conceding and ascribing of honour about
which we are speaking are met with among men alone,
whom their natural weakness and love of standing above
their fellows4 teach to delight in arrogance, and in being
preferred above others. But, I ask, where is there room

1 Lit., " of most powerful name."

2 Lit., " imitating a slave's servility " — ancillatnm, the emendation
of Hemsterhuis, adopted by Orelli, Hild., and Oehler for the unin-
telligible MS. ancillarum.

3 Lit., " things." * Lit., " in higher [places]."

BOOK vn. J ARNOBIUS ADVERSOS GENTES. 321

for honour among the gods, or what greater exaltation is
found to be given1 to them by piling up2 sacrifices? Do
they become more venerable, more powerful, when cattle are
sacrificed [to them] ? is there anything added to them from
this ? or do they begin to be more [truly] gods, their divinity
being increased ? And yet I consider it almost an insult, nay,
an insult altogether, when it is said that a god is honoured
by a man, and exalted by the offering of some gift. For if
honour increases and augments the grandeur of him to whom
it is given, it follows that a deity becomes greater by means
of the man from whom he has received the gift, and the
honour conferred on him ; and thus the matter is brought
to this issue, that the god who is exalted by human honours
is the inferior, while, on the other hand, the man who in-
creases the power of a deity [is] his superior.3

15. What then ! some one will say, do you think that no
honour should be given to the gods at all ? If you propose
to us gods such as they should be if they do exist, and such
as 4 we feel that we all mean when we mention 6 that name,
how can we but give them even the greatest honour, since
we have been taught by the commands which have especial
power over us,6 to pay honour to all men even, of whatever
rank, of whatever condition they may be ? What, pray,
[you ask], is this very great honour ? One much more in

1 Lit., " what eminences is it found to be added," addier. So Hild.
and Oehler for the reading of MS., first four edd., and Oberthiir addere
— '' to add," emended in rest from margin of Ursinus accedere, much as
above.

2 So the MS., reading conjectionibus, which is retained in no edd.,
although its primary meaning is exactly what the sense here requires.

8 The last clause was omitted in first four edd. and Elm., and was
inserted from the MS. by Meursius.

4 Lit., "whom."

5 Lit., " say in the proclamation of."

6 Lit., " more powerful commands," i.e. by Christ's injunctions. It
seems hardly possible that any one should suppose that there is here any
reference to Christ's command to his disciples not to exercise lordship
over each other, yet Orelli thinks that there is perhaps a reference to
Mark x. 42, 43. If a particular reference were intended, we might with
more reason find it in 1 Pet. ii. 17, " Honour all men."

AKNOB. X

822 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vn.

accordance with duty than is paid by you, and directed to1 a
more powerful race, [we reply]. Tell us, you say, in the first
place, what is an opinion worthy of the gods, right and honour-
able, and not blameworthy from its being made unseemly by
something infamous ? [We reply, one such], that you be-
lieve that they neither have any likeness to man, nor look for
anything which is outside of them and comes from without ;
then — and this has been said pretty frequently — that they do
not burn with the fires of anger, that they do not give them-
selves up passionately to sensual pleasure, that they are not
bribed to be of service, that they are not tempted to injure
[our enemies], that they do not sell their kindness and favour,
that they do not rejoice in having honour heaped on them,
that they are not indignant and vexed if it is not given ;
but — and this belongs to the divine — that by their own power
they know themselves, and that they do not rate themselves
by the obsequiousness of others. And yet, that we may see
the nature of what is said, what kind of honour is this, to
bind a wether, a ram, a bull before the face of a god, and
slay them in his sight ? What kind of honour is it to invite
a god to [a banquet of] blood, which you see him take and
share in with dogs ? What kind of honour is it, having set
on fire piles of wood, to hide the heavens with smoke, and
darken with gloomy blackness the images of the gods ? But
if it seems good to you that these actions should be con-
sidered in themselves,2 not judged of according to your pre-
judices, [you will find that] those altars of which you speak,
and even those beautiful ones which you dedicate to the
superior gods,3 are places for burning the unhappy race of
animals, funeral pyres, and mounds built for a most un-
seemly office, and formed to be filled with corruption.

16. What say you, O you ! is that foul smell, then,

which is given forth and emitted by burning hides, by bones,
by bristles, by the fleeces of lambs, and the feathers of fowls,
— [is that] a favour and an honour to the deity ? and are

1 Lit., " established in."

2 Lit., "weighed by their own force," vi.
* i.e. altariaque haec pulchra.

BOOK vii.] AENOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 323

the deities honoured by this, to whose temples, when you
arrange to go, you come1 cleansed from all pollution, washed,
and perfectly 2 pure ? And what can be more polluted than
these, more unhappy,3 more debased, than if their senses are
naturally such that they are fond of what is so cruel, and
take delight in foul smells which, when inhaled with the
breath, even those who sacrifice cannot bear, and [certainly]
not a delicate4 nose? But if you think that the gods of
heaven are honoured by the blood of living creatures [being
offered to them], why do you not5 sacrifice to them both
mules, and elephants, and asses ? why not dogs also, bears,
and foxes, camels, and hyenas, and lions? And as birds
also are counted victims by you, why do you not [sacrifice]
vultures, eagles, storks, falcons, hawks, ravens, sparrow-
hawks, owls, and, along with them, salamanders, water-
snakes, vipers, tarantula?? For indeed there is both blood
in these, and they are in like manner moved by the breath
of life. What is there more artistic in the former kind [of
sacrifices], or less ingenious in the latter, that these do not
add to and increase the grandeur of the gods ? Because, says
my opponent, it is right to honour the gods of heaven with
those things by which we are ourselves nourished and sus-
tained, and live ; which also they have, in their divine benevo-
lence, deigned to give to us for food. But the same gods
have given to you both cumin, cress, turnips, onions, parsley,
esculent thistles, radishes, gourds, rue, mint, basil, flea-bane,

1 Lit., " you show yourselves," prsestatis.

2 Lit., "most." So Tibullus (Eleg. ii. 1, 13) : "Pure things please
the gods. Come (i.e. to the sacrifice) with clean garments, and with
clean hands take water from the fountain," — perfect cleanliness being
scrupulously insisted on.

3 This Heraldus explains as " of worse omen," and Oehler as " more
unclean."

4 Ingenue, i.e. such as any respectable person has.

5 To this the commentators have replied, that mules, asses, and dogs
were sacrificed to certain deities. "We must either admit that Arnobius
has here fallen into error, or suppose that he refers merely to the animals
which were usually slain, or find a reason for his neglecting it in the
circumstances of each sacrifice.

324 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vn.

and chives, and commanded them to be used by you as part
of your food ; why, then, do you not put these too upon the
altars, and scatter wild-marjoram, with which oxen are fed,
over them all, and mix amongst [them] onions with their
pungent flavour ?

17. Lo, if dogs — for a case must be imagined, in order that
things may be seen more clearly — if dogs, I say, and asses,
and along with them water-wagtails, if the twittering swallows,
and pigs also, having acquired some of the feelings of men,
were to think and suppose that you were gods, and to pro-
pose to offer sacrifices in your honour, not of other things
and substances, but [of those] with which they are wont to
be nourished and supported, according to their natural incli-
nation,— we ask you to say whether you would consider this
an honour, or rather a most outrageous affront, when the
swallows slew and consecrated flies to you, the water-wagtails
ants ; when the asses put hay upon your altars, and poured
out libations of chaff; when the dogs placed bones, and
burned human excrements [at your shrines] ; when, lastly,
the pigs poured out before you a horrid mess, taken from
their frightful hog-pools and filthy maws ? Would you not
in this case, then, be inflamed with rage that your greatness
was treated with contumely, and account it an atrocious
wrong that you were greeted with filth ? But, [you reply],
you honour the gods with the carcasses of bulls, and by slay-
ing1 other living creatures. And in what respect does this
differ from that, since these [sacrifices], also, if they are not
yet, will nevertheless soon be, dung, and will become rotten
after a very short time has passed ? Finally, cease to place
fire upon 2 your altars, then indeed you will 3 see that con-
secrated flesh of bulls, with which you magnify the honour
of the gods, swelling and heaving with worms, tainting and
corrupting the atmosphere, and infecting the neighbouring
districts with unwholesome smells. Now, if the gods were

1 Lit., " by slaughters of," cxdilus.

2 Lit., " under," i.e. under the sacrifices on your altars.

3 So all edd., reading cerne-, except both Roman edd., Hikl., and
Oehler, who retain the MS. cerni-tis— " YOU see."

BOOK vii.] AKNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 325

to enjoin yon to turn these tilings1 to your own account,
to make your meals from them2 in the usual way, you would
flee to a distance, and, execrating the smell, would beg par-
don from the gods, and bind yourselves by oath never [again]
to offer such sacrifices to them. Is not this conduct of yours
mockery, then ? is it not to confess, to make known that you
do not know what a deity is, nor to what power the meaning
and title of this name should be given and applied ? Do you
give new dignity to the gods by new kinds of food ? do you
honour them with savours and juices, and because those things
which nourish you are pleasing and grateful to you? do you
believe that the gods also flock up to [enjoy] their pleasant
taste, and, just as barking dogs, lay aside their fierceness
for mouthfuls, and pretty often fawn upon those who hold
[these] out?

18. And as we are now speaking of the animals sacri-
ficed, what cause, what reason is there, that while the im-
mortal gods (for, so far as we are concerned, they may all
be [gods] who are believed to be so) are of one mind, or
should be of one nature, kind, and character, all are not
appeased with all the victims, but certain [deities] with
certain [animals], according to the sacrificial laws ? For
what cause is there (to repeat the same question) that that
deity should be honoured with bulls, another with kids or
sheep, this one with sucking pigs, the other with unshorn
lambs, this one with virgin heifers, that one with horned
goats, this with barren cows, but that with teeming3 swine,
this with white, that with dusky 4 [victims], one with female,

1 Tn translating thus, it has been attempted to adhere as closely as
possible to the MS. reading (according to Crusius) qua si — corrected, as
above, qitx in LB. ; but it is by no means certain that further changes
should not be made.

2 Lit., "prepare luncheons and dinners thence," i.e. from the putre-
fying carcasses.

3 The MS. and first four edd. read ingentibus scrojift—" with huge
breeding swine," changed by rest, as above, indent-, from the margin of
Ursinus.

4 Or "gloomy," tetris, the reading of MS. and all edd. since LB., for
which earlier edd. give atris — u black."

326 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vn.

the other, on the contrary, with male animals? For if vic-
tims are slain in sacrifice to the gods, to do them honour and
show reverence for them, what does it matter, or what differ-
ence is there with the life of what animal this debt is paid,
their anger and resentment put away ? Or is the blood of
one victim less grateful and pleasing to one god, while the
other's fills him with pleasure and joy ? or, as is usually done,
does that [deity] abstain from the flesh of goats because of
some reverential and religious scruple, another turn with
disgust from pork, while to this mutton stinks ? and does this
one avoid tough ox-beef that he may not overtax his weak
stomach, and choose tender1 sucklings that he may digest
them more speedily ?

19. But you err, says [my opponent], and fall into mis-
takes ; for in sacrificing female victims to the female deities,
males to the male [deities], there is a hidden and very 2
secret reason, and one beyond the reach of the mass. I do
not inquire, I do not demand, what the sacrificial laws teach
or contain ; but if reason has demonstrated,3 and truth de-
clared, that among the gods there is no difference of species,
and that they are not distinguished by any sexes, must not
all these reasonings be set at naught, and be proved, be
found to have been believed under the most foolish halluci-
nations ? I will not bring forward the opinions of wise
men, who cannot restrain their laughter when they hear
distinctions of sex attributed to the immortal gods : I ask
of each man whether he himself believes in his own mind,
and persuades himself that the race of the gods is [so] dis-
tinguished that they are male and female, and have been
formed with members arranged suitably for the begetting of
young ?

But if the laws of the sacrifices enjoin that like sexes
should be sacrificed to like, that is, female [victims] to the
female [gods], male victims, on the contrary, to the male
gods, what relation is there in the colours, so that it is right

1 Lit., " the tenderness of." 2 Lit., " more."

3 So the MS., Elm., LB., Orelli, Hild., and Oehler, reading vicerit, for
which the others read jusserit — " has bidden."

BOOK vii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 327

and fitting that to these white, to those dark, even the blackest
victims are slain? Because, says [my opponent], to the
gods above, and [those] who have power to give favourable
omens,1 the cheerful colour is acceptable and propitious from
the pleasant appearance of pure white; while, on the con-
trary, to the sinister deities, and those who inhabit the in-
fernal seats, a dusky colour is more pleasing, and [one]
tinged with gloomy hues. But if, again, the reasoning holds
good, that the infernal regions are an utterly vain and empty
name,2 and that underneath the earth there are no Plutonian
realms and abodes, this, too, must nullify your ideas about
black cattle and gods under the ground. Because, if there
are no infernal regions, of necessity there are no dii Manlum
also. For how is it possible that, while there are no regions,
there should be said to be any who inhabit them ?

20. But let us agree, as you wish, that there are both
infernal regions and Manes, and that some gods or other
dwell in these by no means favourable to men, and presid-
ing over misfortunes ; and what cause, what reason is there,
that black victims, even3 of the darkest hue, should be
brought to their altars ? Because dark things suit dark,
and gloomy things are pleasing to similar beings. What
then 1 Do you not see (that we, too, may joke with you
stupidly, and just as you do yourselves4) that the flesh of
the victims is not black,5 [nor] their bones, teeth, fat, the
bowels, with 6 the brains, and the soft marrow in the bones ?
But the fleeces are jet-black, and the bristles of the creatures

1 Lit., " prevailing with favourableness of onieris," ominum, for which
the MS. and first four edd. read A " of men."

2 That Arnobius had good reason to appeal to this scepticism as a fact,
is evident from the lines of Juvenal (ii. 149-152) : "Not even children
believe that there are any Manes and subterranean realms."

3 Lit., " and." Immediately after, the us. is corrected in later writing
color-es (for -z's) — " and the darkest colours."

4 Similiter. This is certainly a suspicious reading, but Arnobius in-
dulges occasionally in similar vague expressions.

fi Lit., " is white."

6 Or, very probably, " the membranes with (i.e. enclosing) the brains,"
omenta cum cerelris.

328 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vn.

are jet-black. Do yon, then, sacrifice to the gods only wool
and little bristles torn from the victims ? Do you leave the
wretched creatures, despoiled it may be, and shorn, to draw the
breath of heaven, and rest in perfect innocence upon their feed-
ing-grounds ? But if you think that those things are pleasing
to the infernal gods which are black and of a gloomy colour,
why do you not take care that all the other things which it
is customary to place upon their sacrifices should be black,
nnd smoked, and horrible in colour? Dye the incense if it
is offered, the salted grits, and all the libations without ex-
ception. Into the milk, oil, blood, pour soot and ashes, that
this may lose its purple hue, that the others may become
ghastly. But if you have no scruple in introducing some
things which are white and retain their brightness, you
yourselves do away with your own religious scruples and
reasonings, while you do not maintain any single and uni-
versal rule in performing the sacred rites.

21. But this, too, it is fitting that we should here learn
from you : If a goat be slain to Jupiter, which is usually
sacrificed to father Liber and Mercury,1 or if the barren
heifer be sacrificed to Unxia, which you give to Proserpine,
by what usage and rule is it determined what crime there is
in this, what wickedness or guilt has been contracted, since
it makes no difference to the worship [offered to the deity]
what animal it is with whose head the honour is paid which
you owe ? It is not lawful, says [my opponent], that these
things should be confounded, and it is no small crime to
throw the ceremonies of the rites and the mode of expiation
into confusion. Explain the reason, I beg. Because it is
right to consecrate victims of a certain kind to certain
deities, and that certain forms of supplication should be also
adopted. And what, again, is the reason that it is right to
consecrate victims of a certain kind to certain deities, and
that certain forms of supplication should be also adopted,
for this very rightfulness should have its own cause, and
spring, be derived from certain reasons'? Are you going

1 Goats were sacrificed to Bacchus, but not, so far as is known, to
Mercury. Cf. c. 16, p. 323, n. 5.

BOOK vii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 329

to speak about antiquity and custom? [If so], you relate
to me merely the opinions of men, and the inventions of a
blind creature : but I, when I request a reason to be brought
forward to me, wish to hear either that something has fallen
from heaven, or (which the subject rather requires) what
relation Jupiter has to a bull's blood that it should be offered
in sacrifice to him, not to Mercury [or] Liber. Or what are
the natural properties of a goat, that they again should be
suited to these gods, should not be adapted to the sacrifices
of Jupiter? Has a partition of the animals been made
amongst the gods? Has some contract been made and
agreed to, so that * it is fitting that this one should hold
himself back from the victim which belongs to that, that the
other should cease2 to claim as his own the blood which
belongs to another ? Or, as envious boys, are they unwilling
to allow others to have a share in enjoying the cattle pre-
sented to them ? or, as is reported to be done by races which
differ greatly in manners, are the same things which by one
party are considered fit for eating, rejected as food by others ?
22. If, then, these things are vain, and are not supported
by any reason, the very offering 3 of sacrifices also is idle.
For how can that which follows have a suitable cause, when
that very first [statement] from which the second flows is
found to be utterly idle and vain, and established on no
solid basis ? To mother Earth, they say, is sacrificed a
teeming4 and pregnant sow; but to the virgin Minerva is
slain a virgin calf, never forced 5 by the goad to attempt
any labour. But yet we think that neither should a virgin
have been sacrificed to a virgin, that the virginity might not
be violated in the brute, for which the goddess is especially

1 Lit., " by the paction of some transaction is it," etc.

2 So all except both Roman edd., which retain the MS. reading desi-d-
eret (corrected -n- by Gelenius) — " wish."

8 So the MS., Hild., and Oehler, reading d-atio, approved of by
Stewechius also. The others read r " reasoning on behalf."

4 Inci-ens, so corrected in the margin of Ursiuus for MS. ing

" huge." Cf. ch. 18, p. 325, n. 3.

5 The MS. reads excitata conatus (according to Hild.) ; corrected, as
above, by the insertion of ad.

330 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vn.

esteemed; nor [should] gravid and pregnant [victims have
been sacrificed] to the Earth from respect for its fruitf ulness,
which1 we all desire and wish to go on always in irrepressible
fertility.2 For if because the Tritonian [goddess] is a virgin
it is therefore fitting that virgin victims be sacrificed to her,
and [if] because the Earth is a mother she is in like manner
to be entertained with gravid swine, then also Apollo [should
be honoured] by the sacrifice of musicians because he is a
musician ; -ZEsculapius, because he is a physician, by the
sacrifice of physicians ; and because he is an artificer, Vulcan
by the sacrifice of artificers; and because Mercury is elo-
quent, sacrifice should be made to him with the eloquent
and most fluent. But if it is madness to say this, or, to
speak with moderation, nonsense, that shows much greater
madness to slaughter pregnant [swine] to the Earth be-
cause she is even more prolific ; pure and virgin [heifers] to
Minerva because she is pure, of unviolated virginity.

23. For as to that which we hear said by you, that some
of the gods are good, that others, on the contrary, are bad,
and rather inclined to indulge in wanton mischief,3 and that
the usual rites are paid to the one party that they may show
favour, but to the others that they may not do you harm, —
with what reason this is said, we confess that we cannot
understand. For to say that the gods are most benevolent,
and have gentle dispositions, is not only pious and religious,
but also true ; but that they are evil and sinister, should by
no means be listened to, inasmuch as that divine power has
been far removed and separated from the disposition which
does harm.4 But whatever can occasion calamity, it must
first be seen what it is, and [then] it should be removed very
far from the name of deity.

1 Quam, i.e. the earth.

2 Singularly enough, for fecunditate Oberthiir reads virginitate — "in-
extinguishable virginity," which is by no means universally desired in
the earth. Orelli, as usual, copies without remark the mistake of his
predecessor.

8 Lit., " more prompt to lust of hurting."
4 Lit., " nature of hurting."

BOOK vii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 331

Then, [supposing] that we should agree with you that the
gods promote good fortune and calamity, not even in this
case is there any reason why you should allure some of them
to grant you prosperity, and, on the other hand, coax others
with sacrifices and rewards not to do you harm. First,
because the good gods cannot act badly, even if they have
been worshipped with no honour, — for whatever is mild and
placid by nature, is separated widely from the practice and
devising of mischief ; while the bad knows not to restrain
his ferocity, although he should be enticed [to do so] with a
thousand flocks and a thousand altars. For neither can
bitterness change itself into sweetness, dryness into moisture,
the heat of fire into cold, or what is contrary to anything
take and change into its own nature that which is its
opposite. So that, if you should stroke a viper with your
hand, or caress a poisonous scorpion, the former will attack
you with its fangs, the latter, drawing itself together, will
fix its sting [in you] ; and your caressing will be of no avail,
since both creatures are excited to do mischief, not by the
stings of rage, but by a certain peculiarity of their nature.
It is thus of no avail to wish to deserve well of the sinister
deities by means of sacrifices, since, whether you do this, or
on the contrary do not, they follow their own nature, and
by inborn laws and a kind of necessity are led to those
things, [to do] which1 they were made. Moreover, in this
way f both [kinds of] gods cease to possess their own powers,
and to retain their own characters. For if the good are
worshipped that they may be favourable, and supplication
is made in the same way to the others, on the contrary,
that they may not be injurious, it follows that it should
be understood that the propitious [deities] will show no
favour if they receive no gifts, and become bad instead of

1 The MS. reads ad ea quxfacti sunt, understood seemingly as above by
the edd., by supplying ad before qitx. Oehler, however, proposes quia
— " because they were made [for them]." The reading must be regarded
as doubtful.

2 i.e. if sacrifices avail to counteract the malevolent dispositions of the
gods.

332 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boon vn.

good ; l while, on the contrary, the bad, if they receive [offer-
ings], will lay aside their mischievous disposition, and become
thereafter good : and thus it is brought to this issue, that
neither are these propitious, nor are those sinister; or, which
is impossible, both are propitious, and both again sinister.

24. Be it so ; let it be conceded that [these] most unfor-
tunate cattle are not sacrificed in the temples of the gods
without some religious obligation, and that what has been
done in accordance with usage and custom possesses some
rational ground : but if it seems a great and grand thing to
slay bulls to the gods, and to burn in [sacrifice] the flesh of
animals whole and entire, what is the meaning of these
relics connected with the arts of the Magi which the ponti-
fical mysteries have restored to a place among the secret laws
of the sacred rites, and have mixed up with religious affairs?
What, I say, is the meaning of these things, apexaones, hircue,
silicernia, longavi, which are names and kinds of sausages,2
some stuffed with goats' blood,3 others with minced liver I
What [is the meaning of] tcedce, ncenice, offce, not those used
by the common people, but those named and called offw
penitce? — of which the first4 is fat cut into very small pieces,
as dainties 6 are ; that which has been placed second is the
extension of the gut by which the excrements are given off
after being drained of all their nourishing juices ; while the
offa penita is a beast's tail cut off with a morsel of flesh.
What [is the meaning of] polimina, omenta, palasea, or, as
some call it, plaseaf — of which that named omentum is a
certain part enclosed by which the reservoirs of the belly are

1 Lit., "these." This clause, omitted by Oberthiir, is also omitted
without remark by Orelli.

2 So the edd., reading farciminum for the MS. facinorum, corrected by
Hild. fartorum — " of stuffings." Throughout this passage hardly one
of the iiarnes of these sacrificial dainties is generally agreed upon ; as
many are met with nowhere else, the MS. has been adhered to strictly.

3 i.e. probably the hircize: of the others, silicernia seem to have been
put on the table at funerals.

4 i.e. tsecla.

& So Salmasius and Meursius corrected the MS. catiUaminu-a-m by
omitting a.

BOOK vn. J A RN OBI US AD VERSUS GENTES. 833

kept within bounds; the plasea is an ox's tail1 besmeared
with flour and blood ; the polimina, again, are those parts
which we with more decency call proles, — by the vulgar, how-
ever, they are usually termed testes. What [is the meaning
of] fttilla, frumen, africia, gratilla, catumeum, cumspolium,
cubula ? — of which the first two are names of species of pot-
tage, but differing in kind and quality; while the series [of
names] which follows denotes consecrated cakes, for they
are not shaped in one and the same way. For we do not
choose to mention the caro strebula which is taken from the
haunches of bulls, the roasted pieces of meat which are
spitted, the intestines first heated, and baked on glowing
coals, nor, finally, the pickles,2 which are made by mixing
four kinds of fruit. In like manner, [we do not choose to
mention] the fendicce, which also are the kiraf which the lan-
guage of the mob, when it speaks, usually terms ilia ; 4 nor,
in the same way, the cerumncef which are the first part of the
gullet,6 where ruminating animals are accustomed to send
down their food and bring it back again ; nor the magmenta,7
angmina, and thousand other kinds of sausages or pottages
which you have given unintelligible names to, and have
caused to be more revered by common people.

25. For if whatever is done by men, and especially in re-
ligion, should have its causes, — and nothing should be done
without a reason in all that men do and perform, — tell us
and say what is the cause, what the reason, that these things

1 i.e. tail-piece.

2 Salsamina, by which is perhaps meant the grits and salt cast on the
victim ; but if so, Arnobius is at variance with Servius (Virgil, Eel. viii.
81), who expressly states that these were of spelt mixed only with salt ;
while there is no trace elsewhere of a different usage.

3 The first four edd. retain the unintelligible MS. dirge.

4 i.e. the entrails. The MS., first four edd., and Elm. read ilia.

5 So the MS., LB., Oberthiir, Orelli, Hild., and Oehler ; but serumnse ia
found ia no other passage with this meaning.

6 Lit., " first heads in gullets."

7 By this, and the word which follows, we know from the etymology
that " offerings " to the gods must be meant, but we know nothing
more.

334 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK VH.

also are given to the gods and burned upon their sacred
altars? For here we delay, [constrained] most urgently [to
wait] for this cause, we pause, we stand fast, desiring to
learn what a god has to do with pottage, with cakes, with
different [kinds of] stuffing prepared in manifold ways, and
with different ingredients? Are the deities affected by
splendid dinners or luncheons, so that it is fitting to devise
for them feasts without number ? Are they troubled by the
loathings of their stomachs, and is variety of flavours sought
for to get rid of their aversion, so that there is set before
them meat at one time roasted, at another raw, and at an-
other half cooked and half raw 1 But if the gods like to
receive all these parts which you term prcesicice^ and if these
gratify them with any sense of pleasure or delight, what pre-
vents, what hinders you from laying all these upon [their
altars] at once with the whole animals? What cause, what
reason is there that the haunch-piece 2 by itself, the gullet,
the tail, and the tail-piece 3 separately, the entrails only, and
the membrane4 alone, should be brought to do them honour?
Are the gods of heaven moved by various condiments?
After stuffing themselves with sumptuous and ample din-
ners, do they, as is usually done, take these little bits as
sweet dainties, not to appease their hunger, but to rouse their
wearied palates,5 and excite in themselves a perfectly voracious
appetite? O wonderful greatness of the gods, comprehended
by no men, understood by no creatures! if indeed their
favours are bought with the testicles and gullets of beasts,
and if they do not lay aside their anger and resentment,
unless they see the entrails 6 prepared and offce bought and
burned upon their altars.

26. We have now to say a few words about incense and
wine, for these, too, are connected and mixed up with your

1 i.e. cut off for sacrifice. 2 Caro strebula. 3 Plasea.

4 The MS. reads unintelligibly nomen quas, corrected by Gelenius omen'
turn, as above.

6 Lit., " admonish the ease of the palate ; " a correction of Salmasius,
by omitting a from the MS. palati -a admoneant.

6 Nasnix.

BOOK vii.] AENOBIUS ADVEESUS GENTES. 335

ceremonies,1 and are used largely in your religious acts. And,
first, with respect to that very incense which you use, we ask
this of you particularly, whence or at what time you have
been able to become acquainted with it, and to know it, so
that you have just reason to think that it is either worthy to
be given to the gods, or most agreeable to their desires. For
it is almost a novelty ; and there is no endless succession of
years since it began to be known in these parts, and won its
way into the shrines of the gods. For neither in the heroic
ages, as it is believed and declared, was it known what in-
cense was, as is proved by the ancient writers, in whose
books is found no mention 2 of it ; nor was Etruria, the
parent and mother of superstition, acquainted with its fame
and renown, as the rites of the chapels prove ; nor was it
used by any one in offering sacrifice during the four hundred
years in which Alba flourished ; nor did even Romulus or
Numa, [who was] skilful in devising new ceremonies, know
either of its existence or growth, as the sacred grits3 show
with which it was customary that the usual sacrifices should
be performed. Whence, therefore, did its use begin to be
adopted ? or what [desire of] novelty assailed the old and
ancient custom, so that that which was not needed for so
many ages took the first place in the ceremonies? For if
without incense the performance of a religious service is im-
perfect, and if a quantity of it is necessary to make the celes-
tials gentle and propitious to men, the ancients fell into sin,
nay rather, their whole life was full of guilt, for they care-
lessly neglected to offer that which was most fitted to give
pleasure to the gods. But if in ancient times neither men
nor gods sought for this incense, it is proved that to-day
also that is offered uselessly and in vain which antiquity did
not believe necessary, but modern times desired without any
reason.

1 Lit., " these kinds of ceremonies, too, were coupled and mixed," etc.

2 On this Oehler remarks, that the books of Moses show that it was
certainly used in the East in the most ancient times. But Arnobius has
expressly restricted his statement to the use of incense " in these parts."

3 Piumfar.

336 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vir.

27. Finally, that we may always abide by the rule and
definition by which it has been shown and determined that
whatever is done by man must have its causes, we will hold
it fast here also, so as to demand of you what is the cause,
what the reason, that incense is put on the altars before the
very images of the deities, and that, from its being burned,
they are supposed to become friendly and gentle. What do
they acquire from this being done, or what reaches their
minds, so that we should be right in judging that these
things are well expended, and are not consumed uselessly
and in vain? For as you should show why you give in-
cense to the gods, so, too, it follows that you should manifest
that the gods have some reason for not rejecting it with dis-
dain, nay more, for desiring it so fondly. We honour the gods
with this, some one will perhaps say. But we are not inquir-
ing what your feeling is, but the gods' ; nor do we ask what is
done by you, but how much they value what is done to pur-
chase their favour. But yet, O piety, what or how great is
this honour which is caused by the odour of a fire, and pro-
duced from the gum of a tree ? For, lest you should happen
not to know what this incense is. or what is its origin, it is
a gum flowing from the bark of trees, [just] as from the
almond-tree, the cherry-tree, solidifying as it exudes in drops.
Does this, then, honour and magnify the celestial dignities ?
or, if their displeasure has been at any time excited, is it
melted away before the smoke of incense and lulled to
sleep, their anger being moderated ? Why, then, do you not
burn indiscriminately the juice of any tree whatever, without
making any distinction ? For if the deities are honoured by
this, and are not displeased that Panchaan gums are burned
to them, what does it matter from what the smoke proceeds
on your sacred altars, or from what kind of gum the clouds
of fumigation arise ?

28. Will any one say that incense is given to the celestials,
for this reason, that it has a sweet smell, and imparts a plea-
sant sensation to the nose, while the rest are disagreeable,
and have been set aside because of their offensiveness ? Do
the gods, then, have nostrils with which to breathe? do

BOOK vii.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 837

they inhale and respire currents of air so that the qualities
of different smells can penetrate them? But if we allow
that this is the case, we make them subject to the conditions
of humanity, and shut them out from the limits of deity ; for
whatever breathes and draws in draughts of air, to be sent
back in the same way, must be mortal, because it is sustained
by feeding on the atmosphere. But whatever is sustained by
feeding on the atmosphere, if you take away the means by
which communication is kept up,1 its life must be crushed out,
and its vital principle must be destroyed and lost. So then, if
the gods also breathe and inhale odours enwrapt in the air
that accompanies them, it is not untrue to say that they live
upon what is received from others,2 and that they might
perish if their air-holes were blocked up. And whence,
lastly, do you know whether, if they are charmed by the
sweetness of smells, the same things are pleasant to them
which [are pleasant] to you, and charm and affect your
[different] natures with a similar feeling ? May it not be
possible that the things which give pleasure to you, seem, on
the contrary, harsh and disagreeable to them? For since
the opinions of the gods are not the same, and their sub-
stance not one, by what methods can it be brought about
that that which is unlike in quality should have the same
feeling and perception as to that which touches it?3 Do we
not every day see that, even among the creatures sprung
from the earth, the same things are either bitter or sweet to
different species, that to some things are fatal which are not
pernicious to others, so that the same things which charm
some with their delightful odours, give forth exhalations
deadly to the bodies of others ? But the cause of this is not
in the things which cannot be at one and the same time
deadly and wholesome, sweet and bitter ; but just as each
one has been formed to receive impressions from what is ex-

1 Lit., "the returns "by which the vital alternation is restored and
•withdrawn."

2 So the MS., Hild., and Oehler, reading suffec-tionibus alienis, for
which the rest read suffi "the fumigations of others."

3 Lit., " feel and receive one contact."

ARNOB. T

338 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vn.

ternal,1 so he is affected :2 his condition is not caused by the
influences of the things, but springs from the nature of his
own senses, and connection with the external. But all this
is set far from the gods, and is separated from them by no
small interval. For if it is true, as is believed by the wise,
that they are incorporeal, and not supported by any excel-
lence of [bodily] strength, an odour is of no effect upon them,
nor can reeking fumes move them by their senses, not [even]
if you were to set on fire a thousand pounds of the finest in-
cense, and the whole sky were clouded v/ith the darkness of
the abundant vapours. For that which does not have [bodily]
strength and corporeal substance, cannot be touched by cor-
poreal substance ; but an odour is corporeal, as is shown by
the nose when touched [by one] : therefore it cannot, accord-
ing to reason, be felt by a deity, who has no body, and is
without any feeling and thought.3

29. Wine is used along with incense ; and of this, in like
manner, we ask an explanation why it is poured upon it
when burning. For if a reason is not4 shown for doing this,
and its cause is not 6 set forth, this action of yours must not
now be attributed to a ridiculous error, but, to speak more
plainly, to madness, foolishness, blindness. For, as has been
already said pretty frequently, everything which is done
should have its cause manifest, and not involved in any
dark obscurity. If, therefore, you have confidence in what
is done, disclose, point out why that liquor is offered ; that is,
[why] wine is poured on the altars. For do the bodies of

1 Lit., " as each has been made for the touching of a thing coming
from without."

2 So Gelenius and later edd., reading afficitur for the unintelligible
reading of MS. and Roman edd., efficit — "effects."

3 So all edd., without remark, reading cog-it-alione, although "medi-
tation " has nothing to do with the sense of smell, and has not been pre-
viously mentioned. We should probably read cog-n-atione — " relation,"
i.e. to such objects.

4 So LB. and Oehler, reading ni-si (MS. si), and other edd. inserting
non, the negative being absolutely necessary to the sense, and supplied
in the next clause.

* Lit., " nor will it have its cause."

BOOK viz.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 339

the deities feel parching thirst, and is it necessary that their
dryness be tempered by some moisture ? Are they accus-
tomed, as men are, to combine eating and drinking? In like
manner, also, after the solid1 food of cakes and pottages, and
victims slain [in honour of them], do they drench themselves,
and make themselves merry with very frequent [cups of] wine,
that their food may be more easily softened, and thoroughly
digested ? Give, I beg, to the immortal gods to drink ; bring
forth goblets, bowls,2 ladles, and cups ; and as they stuff
themselves with bulls, and luxurious feasts, and rich food,
— lest some piece of flesh hastily 8 gulped down should stick
in passing through the stomach, run up, hasten, give pure
wine to Jupiter, the most excellent, the supreme, lest he be
choked. He desires to break wind, and is unable ; and unless
that hindrance passes away and is dissolved, there is very
great danger that his breathing will be stopped and4 inter-
rupted, and heaven be left desolate without its rulers.

30. But, says [my opponent], you are insulting us without
reason, for we do not pour forth wine to the gods of heaven
for these reasons, as if we supposed that they either thirsted,
or drank, or were made glad by tasting its sweetness. It is
given to them to do them honour ; that their eminence may
become more exalted, more illustrious, we pour libations on
their altars, and with the [half] extinguished embers we raise
sweet smells,5 which show our reverence. And what greater
insult can be inflicted upon the gods than if you believe that
they become propitious on receiving wine, or, if you suppose
that great honour is done to them, if you only throw and drop
on the live coals a few drops of wine I We are not speaking
to men void of reason, or not possessed of common under-

1 Although this is clearly the meaning, Stewechius explained solidos
by referring to the ancient belief that such offerings should be wholly
consumed, and no fragment left.

2 Briie, drinking- cups, but of their peculiar shape or purpose we know-
nothing.

3 Lit., "badly." 4 Lit., "being strangled, may be."
6 So LB., Orelli, and Oehler, reading with Salmasius m-u-scos (us.

-i-). Gelenius proposed cnissas, which would refer to the steam of the
sacrifices.

340 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK VIL

standing : in you, too, there is wisdom, there is perception,
and in your hearts you know, by your own l judgment, that
we are speaking truly. But what can we do with those
who are utterly unwilling to consider things as they are, to
converse themselves with themselves? For you do what
you see to be done, not that which you are assured should
be done, inasmuch2 as with you a custom without reason
prevails, more than a perception of the nature of circum-
stances based on a careful examination of the truth. For
what has a god to do with wine? or what or how great is
the power in it, that, on its being poured out, his eminence
becomes greater, and his dignity is supposed [to be] honoured?
What, I say, has a god to do with wine, which is most closely
connected with the pursuits of Venus, which weakens the
strength of all virtues, [and] is hostile to the decency of
modesty and chastity, — which has often excited [men's] minds,
and urged them to madness and frenzy, and compelled the
gods to destroy their own authority by raving [and] foul
language ? Is not this, then, impious, and perfectly sacri-
legious, to give that as an honour which, if you take too
eagerly, you know not what you are doing, you are igno-
rant of what you are saying, [and] at last are reviled, and
become infamous as a drunkard, a luxurious and abandoned
fellow?

31. It is worth while to bring forward the words them-
selves also, which, when wine is offered, it is customary to
use and make supplication with : Let [the deity] be worshipped
with this wine which we bring.3 The words which we bring,
says Trebatius, are added for this purpose, and put forth for
this reason, that all the wine whatever which has been laid
up in closets and storerooms, from which was taken that
which is poured out, may not begin to be sacred, and be reft

1 Lit., "interior."

2 So most edd., reading nimirum quid plus valet, for which the MS., fol-
lowed by both Roman edd., Hild., and Oehler, read primum q. v., which
Hild. would explain, "because it prevails above all [rather] than;" but
this is at least very doubtful.

' Vino inferio.

BOOK vii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 341

from the use of men. This word, then, being added, that
alone will be sacred which is brought to [the place], and the
rest will not be consecrated.1 What kind of honour, then, is
this, in which there is imposed on the deity a condition,2 as it
were, not to ask more than has been given ? or what is the
greed of the god, who, if he were not verbally interdicted,
would extend his desires too far, and rob his suppliant of his
stores ? Let [the deity] be worshipped with this wine which
we bring : this is a wrong, not an honour. For what if the
deity shall wish for more, and shall not be content with what
is brought ! Must he not be said to be signally wronged who
is compelled to receive honour conditionally? For if all
wine in cellars whatever must become consecrated were a
limitation not added, it is manifest both that the god is in-
sulted to whom a limit is prescribed against his wishes, and
that in sacrificing you yourselves violate the obligations of
the sacred rites, who do not give as much wine as you see the
god wishes to be given to himself. Let [the deity\ be wor-
shipped icith this wine which we bring : what is this but
saying, Be icorsldpped as much as I choose ; receive as much
dignity as J prescribe^ as much honour as I decide and deter-
mine by a strict engagement 3 that you should have ? O sub-
limity of the gods, excelling in power, which thou shouldst
venerate and worship with all ceremonial observances, but on
which the worshipper imposes conditions, which he adores
with stipulations and contracts, which, through fear of one
word, is kept from excessive desire of wine !

32. But let there be, as you wish, honour in wine and in
incense, let the anger and displeasure of the deities be ap-
peased by the immolation and slaughter of victims : are the
gods moved by garlands also, wreaths and flowers, by the
jingling of brass also, and the shaking of cymbals, by timbrels

1 Lit., "bound by religion."

2 This is admirably illustrated in an inscription quoted by Heraldus :
" Jupiter most excellent, supreme, when this day I give and dedicate to
thee this altar, I give and dedicate it with these conditions and limits
which I say openly to-day."

3 Circumscrijptione verborum.

1842 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [Boon vn.

also, [and] also by symphonies ?l What effect has the clatter-
ing of castanets, that when the deities have heard them, they
think that honour has been shown to them, and lay aside
their fiery spirit of resentment in forgetf ulness ? Or, as little
boys are frightened into giving over their silly wailings by
hearing [the sound of] rattles, are the almighty deities also
soothed in the same way by the whistling of pipes ? and do
they become mild, [is] their indignation softened, at the
musical sound of cymbals? What is the meaning of those
calls 2 which you sing in the morning, joining [your] voices
to the [music of the] pipe? Do the gods of heaven fall
asleep, so that they should return to their posts ? What [is
the meaning of] those slumbers2 to which you commend
them with auspicious salutations that they may be in good
health ? Are they awakened from sleep ; and that they may
be able to be overcome by it, must soothing lullabies be
heard ? The purification, says [my opponent], of the mother
of the gods is to-day.3 Do the gods, then, become dirty ; and
to get rid of the filth, do those who wash [them] need water,
and even some cinders to rub them with?4 The feast of
Jupiter is to-morrow. Jupiter, I suppose, dines, and must
be satiated with great banquets, and long filled with eager
cravings [for food] by fasting, and hungry after the usual 5
interval. The vintage festival of -ZEsculapius is being cele-
brated. The gods, then, cultivate vineyards, and, having
collected gatherers, press the wine for their own uses.6 The

1 Evidently musical instruments ; but while Isidore speaks of them as
a kind of drum, other writers call them trumpets and pipes.

2 At daybreak on opening, and at night on closing the temple, the
priests of Isis sang hymns in praise of the goddess (cf. Jos. Scaliger, Cas-
tigationes ad Cat., etc., p. 132) ; and to these Aruobius refers sarcastically,
as though they had been calls to awake, and lullabies to sing her asleep.

3 i.e. March 27th, marked Lavatio in a calendar prepared during the
reign of Constantius.

4 Lit., " and some rubbing of cinders added," aliqua frictione dneris;
au emendation of Ursinus for the possibly correct MS. antiquaf. c. — " the
ancient rubbing," i.e. that practised in early times.

6 Lit., " anniversary."

6 So the later edd., adopting the emendation of ad suas usiones for the
corrupt MS. ad (or a 6) suasionibus.

BOOK vii.] ARNOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 343

lectisternium of Ceres l will be on the next Ides, for the gods
have couches ; and that they may be able to lie on softer
cushions, the pillows are shaken up when they have been
pressed down.2 It is the birthday of Tellus ; 8 for the gods
are born, and have festal days on which it has been settled
that they began to breathe.

33. But the games which you celebrate, called Floralia
and Megalensia? and all the rest which you wish to be sacred,
and to be considered religious duties, what reason have they,
what cause, that it was necessary that they should be insti-
tuted and founded and designated by the names5 of deities?
The gods are honoured by these, says [my opponent] ; and if
they have any recollection of offences committed6 by men,
they lay it aside, get rid of it, and show themselves gracious
to us again, their friendship being renewed. And what is the
cause, again, that they are made quite calm and gentle, if
absurd things are done, and idle fellows sport before the eyes
of the multitude? Does Jupiter lay aside his resentment
if the Amphitryon of Plautus is acted and declaimed? or if
Europa, Leda, Ganymede, or Danae is represented by danc-
ing, does he restrain his passionate impulses ? Is the Great
Mother rendered more calm, more gentle, if she beholds the
old story of Attis furbished up by the players ? Will Venus
forget her displeasure if she sees mimics act the part of Adonis
also in a ballet ?7 Does the anger of Alcides die away if the

1 i.e. feast at which the image of Ceres was placed on a couch, probably
the Cerealia, celebrated in April. This passage flatly contradicts Prof.
Ramsay's assertion (Ant. p. 345) that lectisternium is not applied to a
banquet offered to a goddess ; while it corroborates his statement that
such feasts were ordinary events, not extraordinary solemnities, as Mr.
Yates says (Smith's Ant. s. v.).

2 Lit., "the impression of the cushions is lifted up and raised," i.e.
smoothed.

3 Thus the 25th of January is marked as the birthday of the Graces,
the 1st of February as that of Hercules, the 1st of March as that of
Mars, in the calendar already mentioned.

4 The former dedicated to Flora (cf. iii. 25), the latter to Cybele.
8 Singular.

fi So the margin of Ursiuus, Elm., LB., Orelli, Hild., and Oehler; the
iis. reading not being known. 7 Lit., " in dancing motions."

344 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF ^BOOK V1!-

tragedy of Sophocles named TracJiinice, or the Hercules of
Euripides, is acted? or does Flora think1 that honour is
shown to her if at her games she sees that shameful actions
are done, and the stews abandoned for the theatres I Is not
this, then, to lessen the dignity of the gods, to dedicate and
consecrate to them the basest things which a rigidly virtuous
mind will turn from with disgust, the performers of which
your law has decided to be dishonoured and to be considered
infamous? The gods, forsooth, delight in mimics; and that
surpassing excellence which has not been comprehended by
any human faculty, opens2 its ears most willingly to hear
these [plays], with most of which they know they are mixed
up to be turned to derision ; they are delighted, as it is, with
the shaved heads of the fools, by the sound of flaps, and by
the [noise of] applause, by shameful actions and words, by
huge red fascina. But further, if they see men weakening
themselves to the effeminacy of women, some vociferating
uselessly, others running about without cause,3 others, while
their friendship is unbroken, bruising and maiming each
with the bloody cestus, these contending in [speaking with-
out drawing] breath,4 swelling out their cheeks with wind, and
shouting out noisily empty vows, do they lift up their hands
to heaven [in their admiration], start up moved by [such]
wonders, burst into exclamations, again become gracious to
men ? If these things cause the gods to forget their resent-
ment, if they derive the highest pleasure from comedies,
Atellane farces, [and] pantomimes, why do you delay, why
do you hesitate, to say that the gods themselves also play,
act lasciviously, dance, compose obscene songs, and undulate
with trembling haunches? For what difference is there,
or what does it matter, whether they do these things them-

1 So Meursius, Orelli, and Oehler, reading ezistimat-ve, all the others
retaining the MS. -ur " Is Flora thought to be treated," etc.

2 Lit., " adapts."

3 Here also there is doubt as to what the reading of the MS. is. The
1st ed. reads sine culpa — " without blame," which is hardly in keeping
with the context, emended causa, as above, by Gelenius.

4 So Orelli explains certare hos spiritu as referring to a contest in
which each strove to speak or sing with one breath longer than the rest.

BOOK vii.] ARNOB1US ADVERSUS GENTES. 345

solves, or are pleased and delighted to see them done by
others?

34. Whence, therefore, have these vicious opinions flowed,
or from what causes have they sprung? From this it is
clear, in great measure, that men [are] unable to know what
God is, what is His essence, nature, substance, quality;
whether He has a form, or is limited by no bodily outline,
does anything or not, is ever watchful, or is at times sunk in
slumbers, runs, sits, walks, or is free from such motions and
inactivity. Being, as I have said, unable to know all these
things, or to discern them by any power of reason, they fell
into these fanciful beliefs, so that they fashioned gods after
themselves, and gave to these such a nature as they have
themselves, in actions, circumstances, and desires. But if
they were to perceive that they are worthless creatures,1 and
that there is no great difference between themselves and a
little ant, they would cease, indeed, to think that they have
anything in common with the gods of heaven, and would
confine their unassuming insignificance2 within its propel
limits. But now, because they see that they themselves have
faces, eyes, heads, cheeks, ears, noses, and all the other parts
of [our] limbs and muscles, they think that the gods also
have been formed in the same way, that the divine nature
is embodied in a human frame;3 and because they perceive
that they themselves rejoice [and] are glad, and [again] are
made sad by what is too disagreeable, they think that the
deities also on joyous occasions are glad, and on less pleasant
ones become dejected. [They see] that they are affected by
the games, and think that the minds of the celestials are
soothed by enjoying games ; and because they have pleasure
in refreshing themselves with warm baths, they think that
the cleanness produced by 4 bathing is pleasing to the gods
above. We men gather our vintages, and they think and
believe that the gods gather and bring in their grapes; we

1 Lit., " an animal of no value."

2 Lit., " the modesty of their humility."

8 Lit., " they contain their nature in a corporeal forta."

4 Lit., " of." •&*

346 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vn.

have birthdays, and they affirm that the powers of heaven
have birthdays.1 But if they could ascribe to the gods ill-
health, sickness, and bodily disease, they would not hesitate
to say that they were splenetic, blear-eyed, and ruptured,
because they are themselves both splenetic, and often blear-
eyed, and weighed down by huge hernice.

35. Come now : as the discussion has been prolonged and
led to these points, let us, bringing forward what each has to
say,2 decide by a brief comparison whether your ideas of the
gods above are the better, or our thoughts preferable, and
much more honourable and just, and such as to give and
assign its own dignity to the divine nature. And, first, you
declare that the gods, whom you either think or believe to
exist, of whom you have set up images and statues in all the
temples, were born and produced from the germs of males
and females, under the necessary condition of sexual embraces.
But we, on the contrary, if they are indeed true gods, and have
the authority, power, dignity of this name, consider that they
must either be unbegotten (for it is pious to believe this), or,
if they have a beginning in 3 birth, it belongs to the supreme
God to know by what methods He made them, or how many
ages there are since He granted to them to enter upon the
eternal being of His own divine nature. You consider that
the deities have sexes, and that some of them are male,
others female ; we utterly deny that the powers of heaven
have been distinguished by sexes, since this distinction has
been given to the creatures of earth which the Author of the
universe willed should embrace and generate, to provide, by
their carnal desires, one generation of offspring after an-

1 Cf. p. 343, n. 3.

2 Lit., "by opposition of the parts of each." Considerable difficulty
has been felt as to the abrupt way in which the book ends as it is
arranged in the MS. Orelli has therefore adopted the suggestion of an
anonymous critic, and transposed cc. 35, 36, 37 to the end. This does
not, however, meet the difficulty ; for the same objection still holds good,
that there is a want of connection and harmony in these concluding
chapters, and that, even when thus arranged, they do not form a fitting
conclusion to the whole work.

3 Lit., "of."

BOOK VIL] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 347

other. You think that they are like men, and have been
fashioned with the countenances of mortals ; we think that
the images of them are wide of the mark,1 as form belongs
to a mortal body ; and if they have any, we swear with the
utmost earnestness and confidence that no man can compre-
hend it. By you they are said to have each his trade, like
artisans ; we laugh when we hear you say such things, as
we hold and think that professions are not necessary to gods,
and it is certain and evident that these have been provided to
assist poverty.

36.2 You say that some of them [cause] dissensions, that
there are others who inflict pestilences, others who [excite]
love [and] madness, others, even, who preside over wars, and
are delighted by the shedding of blood ; but we, indeed, on
the contrary, judge that [these things] are remote 3 from the
dispositions of the deities; or if there are any who inflict
and bring these ills on miserable mortals, we maintain that
they are far from the nature of the gods, and should not
be spoken of under this name. You judge that the deities
are angry and perturbed, and given over and subject to the
other mental affections ; we think that such emotions are alien
from them, for [these] suit savage beings, and those who die
as mortals.4 You think that they rejoice, are made glad,

1 Lit., " that effigies have been far removed from them." This may be
understood, either as meaning that the gods had not visible form at all,
or, as above, that their likenesses made by men showed no resemblance.

2 50 in Orelli.

3 It is important to notice the evidence in this one sentence of haste
and want of revision. In the first line we find a genitive (discordiarum —
"dissensions "), but not the noun on which it depends ; and in the apo-
dosis a verb (disjunctas esse — " have been removed," i.e. " are remote")
has no subject, although its gender imperatively requires that has res,
or some such words, be supplied. One omission might have been easily
ascribed to a slip on the part of the copyist ; but two omissions such as
these occurring so closely, must, it would seem, be assigned to the im-
petuous disregard of minutiae with which Arnobius blocked out a con-
clusion which was never carefully revised. (Cf. Appendix, note 1, and
p. 364, n. 3.) The importance of such indications is manifest in forming
an opinion on the controversy as to this part of the work.

4 Lit., "are of ... those meeting the functions of mortality," obe-

348 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vn.

and are reconciled to men, their offended feelings being
soothed by the blood of beasts and the slaughter of victims ;
we hold that there is in the celestials no love of blood, and
that they are not so stern as to lay aside their resentment
only when glutted with the slaughter of animals. You think
that, by wine and incense, honour is given to the gods, and
their dignity increased ; we judge it marvellous and monstrous
that any man thinks that the deity either becomes more
venerable by reason of smoke, or thinks himself supplicated
by men with sufficient awe and respect when they offer l a
few drops of wine. You are persuaded that, by the crash
of cymbals and the sound of pipes, by horse-races and the-
atrical plays, the gods are both delighted and affected, and
that their resentful feelings conceived before2 are mollified
by the satisfaction which these things give ; we hold it [to
be] out of place, nay more, we judge it incredible, that those
who have surpassed by a thousand degrees every kind of
excellence in the height of their perfection, should be pleased
and delighted with those things which a wise man laughs at,
and which do not seem to have any charm except to little
children, coarsely and vulgarly educated.

37. Since these things are so, and since there is so great
difference between l our opinions and yours, where are we,
on the one hand, impious, or you pious, since the decision as
to * piety and impiety must be founded on the opinions of
the [two] parties ? For he who makes himself an image
which he may worship for a god, or slaughters an innocent
beast, and burns it on consecrated altars, must not be held
to be devoted to religion.3 Opinion constitutes religion, and
a right way of thinking about the gods, so that you do not
think that they desire anything contrary to what becomes
their exalted position, [which is] manifest.4 For since we

unti-um, corrected by Gelenius (according to Orelli) for the MS. -bus,
retained, though unintelligible, by Canterus, Oberth., and Hild.
1 Lit., " of." 2 Lit., " some time."

3 Lit., " divine things."

4 So the MS., both lioman edd., Hild., and Oehler, reading promptx;
corrected prsesumptx — " taken for granted," in the rest.

BOOK vii. ] ARNOBIUS ADVEESUS GENTES. 349

see all the things which are offered to them consumed here
under our eyes, what else can be said to reach them from us
than opinions worthy of the gods, and most appropriate to
their name? These are the surest gifts, these true sacri-
fices ; for gruel, incense, and flesh feed the devouring flames,
and agree very well with the parentalia1 of the dead.

38.2 If the immortal gods cannot be angry, says [my
opponent], and their nature is not agitated or troubled by
any passions, what do the histories, the annals mean, in
which we find it written 3 that the gods, moved by some
annoyances, occasioned pestilences, sterility,4 failure of crops,
and other dangers, to states and nations; and that they
again, being appeased and satisfied by means of6 sacrifices,
laid aside their burning anger, and changed the state of the
atmosphere and times into a happier one? What [is the
meaning of] the earth's roarings, the earthquakes, which we
have been told occurred because the games had been cele-
brated carelessly, and their nature and circumstances [had]
not been attended to, and yet, on their being celebrated
afresh, and repeated with assiduous care, the terrors of the
gods were stilled, and [they] were recalled to care and friend-
ship for men ? How often, after that — in obedience to the
commands of the seers and the responses of the diviners —
sacrifice has been offered, and certain gods have been sum-
moned from nations dwelling beyond the sea, and shrines
erected to them, and certain images and statues set on loftier
pillars, have fears of impending dangers been diverted, and
the most troublesome enemies beaten, and the republic ex-
tended both by repeated joyous victories, and by gaining
possession of several provinces ! Now, certainly this would
not happen if the gods despised sacrifices, games, and other
acts of worship, and did not consider themselves honoured
by expiatory offerings. If, then, all the rage and indignation
of the deities are cooled when these things are offered, and

1 i.e. offerings to parents, as the name implies, and other relatives who
were dead.

* 35 in Orelli. 3 Lit., " in the writings of which we read."

* PJ. * Lit., " by satisfaction of."

350 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK VH.

[if] those things become favourable which seemed fraught
with terrors, it is clear that all these things are not done
without the gods wishing them, arid that it is vain, and shows
utter ignorance, to blame us for giving them.

39.1 We have come, then, in speaking, to the very point
of the case, to that on which the question hinges, to the real
and most intimate [part of the] discussion, which it is fitting
that, laying aside superstitious dread, and putting away par-
tiality, we should examine whether these are gods whom you
assert to be furious when offended, and to be rendered mild
by sacrifices; or whether they are something far different,
and should be separated from the notion of this name and
power. For we do not deny that all these things are to be
found in the writings of the annalists which have been
brought forward by you in opposition ; for we ourselves also,
according to the measure and capacity of our abilities, have
read, and know, that it has been recorded that once at the
ludi circenses, celebrated in honour of Jupiter the supreme,
a master dragged across the middle of the arena, and after-
wards, according to custom, punished with the cross, a very
worthless slave [whom he had] beaten with rods. Then,
when the games were ended, and the races not long finished,
a pestilence began to distress the state ; and when each day
brought fresh ill worse than what was before,2 and the people
were perishing in crowds, in a dream Jupiter said to a certain
rustic, obscure from the lowliness of his lot, that he should
go3 to the consuls, point out that the dancer4 had displeased
him, that it might be better for the state if the respect due
to the games were paid to them, and they were again cele-
brated afresh with assiduous care. And when he had utterly
neglected to do this, either because he supposed it was an
empty dream, and would find no credence with those to whom
he should tell it, or because, remembering his natural insig-
nificance, he avoided and dreaded approaching those who

1 36 in Orelli. 2 Lit., " added evil heavier than evil."

3 So later edd., reading vaderet from the margin of Ursinus, while
the first three retain the MS. reading suaderet—" persuade."

4 i.e. the slave writhing under the scourge.

BOOK vn.] ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 351

were so powerful,1 Jupiter was rendered hostile to the lin-
gerer, and imposed as punishment [on him] the death of his
sons. Afterwards, when he2 threatened the man himself
with death unless he went to announce his disapproval of the
dancer, — overcome by fear of dying, since he was already him-
self also burning with the fever of the plague, having been
infected, he was carried to the senate-house, as his neighbours
wished, and, when his vision had been declared, the con-
tagious fever passed away. The repetition of the games being
then decreed, great care was, on the one hand, given to the
shows, and its former good health was restored to the people.
40.3 But neither shall we deny that we know this as well,
that once on a time, when the state and republic were in
difficulties, caused either by4 a terrible plague continually
infecting the people and carrying them off, or by enemies
powerful, and at that time almost threatening to rob it of
its liberty5 because of their success in battle, — by order
and advice of the seers, certain gods6 were summoned from
among nations dwelling beyond the sea, and honoured
with magnificent temples ; and that the violence of the
plague abated, and very frequent triumphs were gained, the
power of the enemy being broken, and the territory of the
empire was increased, and provinces without number fell
under your sway. But neither does this escape our know-
ledge, that we have seen it asserted that, when the Capitol
was struck by a thunderbolt, and many other things in it,
the image of Jupiter also, which stood on a lofty pillar, was
hurled from its place. Thereafter a response was given by
the soothsayers, that cruel and very sad mischances were por-
tended from fire and slaughter, from the destruction of the
laws, and the overthrow of justice, especially, however, from
enemies themselves belonging to the nation, and from an im-
pious band of conspirators ; but that these things could not be
averted, nay, that the accursed designs could not be revealed,

1 Lit., " of so great power." 2 i.e. Jupiter. 3 37 in Orelli.

4 Lit., " which either a ... made," etc.

5 Lit., " very near to danger of carrying off liberty."
« Cf . ii. 73.

352 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vn.

unless Jupiter were again set up firmly on a higher pillar,
turned towards the east, and facing the rays of the [rising]
sun. Their words were trustworthy, for, when the pillar was
raised, and the statue turned towards the sun, the secrets
were revealed, and the offences made known were punished.
4 1.1 All these things which have been mentioned, have
indeed a miraculous appearance (rather, they are believed
to have it), if they come to men's ears just as they have
been brought forward ; and we do not deny that there is in
them something which, being placed in the fore front, as the
saying is, may stun the ears, and deceive by its resemblance
to truth. But if you will look closely at what was done,
the personages and their pleasures,2 you will find that there
is nothing worthy of the gods, and (as has already been said
often) [nothing worthy] to be referred to the splendour and
majesty of this race. For, first, who is there who will believe
that he was a god who was pleased with horses running to
no purpose,3 and considered it most delightful that he should
be summoned4 by such sports? Rather, who is there who
will agree that that was Jupiter (whom you call the supreme
god, and the creator of all things which are) who set out
from heaven to behold geldings vieing [with each other] in
speed, and running6 the seven rounds of the course; and
that, although he had himself determined that they should
not be equally nimble, he nevertheless rejoiced to see them
pass each other, and be passed, some in their haste falling
forward upon their heads, [and] overturned upon their backs
along with their chariots, others dragged along and lamed,
their legs being broken; and that he considered as the highest
pleasures fooleries mixed with trifles and cruelties, which any

1 38 in Orelli.

2 So the MS., LB., Hild., and Oehler, reading volu-p-tates, i.e. the

games and feasts spoken of previously ; the other edd. read -n

" wishes."

3 Oehler explains frustra by otiose — " who was leisurely delighted ; "
but there is no reason why it should not have its usual meaning, as above.

4 i.e. from heaven. Instead of e-vocari, however, Heraldus has pro-
posed a " be diverted."

5 Lit., " unfolding."

BOOK vii.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 353

man, [even though] fond of pleasure, and not trained to
strive after seriousness and dignity, would consider childish,
and spurn as ridiculous ? Who is there, I say, who will be-
lieve (to repeat this word assiduously) that he was divine
who, being irritated because [a slave] was led across the
circus, about to suffer and be punished as he deserved, was
inflamed with anger, and prepared himself to take vengeance ?
For if the slave was guilty, and deserved to be punished with
that chastisement, why should Jupiter have been moved with
any indignation when nothing was being done unjustly, nay,
when a guilty fellow was being punished, as was right ? But
if he was free from guilt, and not worthy of punishment at
all, [Jupiter] himself was the cause of the dancer's vitiating
the games,1 for when he might have helped him, he did him
no service — nay, sought both to allow what he disapproved,
and to exact from others the penalty for what he had per-
mitted. And why, then, did he complain and declare that
he was wronged in the case of that dancer because he was
led through the midst of the circus to suffer the cross, with
his back torn by rods and scourges ?

42.2 And what pollution or abomination could have flowed
from this, either to make the circus less pure, or to defile
Jupiter, seeing that in a few moments, in [a few] seconds,
he beheld so many thousands throughout the world perish
by different kinds of death, and with various forms of tor-
ture ? He was led across, says [my opponent], before the
games began to be celebrated. If from a sacrilegious spirit
and contempt8 for religion, we have reason to excuse Jupiter
for being indignant that he was contemned, and that more
anxious care was not given to his games. But if from
mistake or accident that secret fault was not observed and
known, would it not have been right and befitting Jupiter to
pardon human failings, and grant forgiveness to the blind-
ness of ignorance ? But it was necessary that it should be
punished. And after this, will any one believe that he was
a god who avenged and punished neglect of a childish show

1 Lit., " was in the cause of the vicious dancer."
3 39 in Orelli. 3 So all edd., rejecting s from MS. contemptu-s.

ARNOB. Z

354 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vn.

by the destruction of a state ? that he had any seriousness
and dignity, or any steady constancy, who, that he might
speedily enjoy pleasure afresh, turned the air men breathed l
into a baneful poison, and ordered the destruction of mortals
by plague and pestilence ? If the magistrate who presided
over the games was too careless in learning who on that day
had been led across the circus, and blame was therefore con-
tracted, what had the unhappy people done that they should
in their own persons suffer the penalty of another's offences,
and should be forced to hurry out of life by contagious pesti-
lences? Nay, what had the women, whose weakness did
not allow them to take part in public business, the grown-
up2 maidens, the little boys, finally the young children,
yet dependent for food on their nurses, — what had these
done that they should be assailed with equal, with the same
severity, and that before [they tasted] the joy of life 3 they
should feel the bitterness of death ?

43.4 If Jupiter sought to have his games celebrated, and
that afresh,6 with greater care ; if he honestly [sought] to
restore e the people to health, and that the evil which he had
caused should go no further and not be increased, would it
not have been better that he should come to the consul him-
self, to some one of the public priests, the pontifex maximus,
or to his own flamen Dialis, and in a vision reveal to him
the defect [in the games] occasioned by the dancer, and the
cause of the sadness of the times ? What reason had there
been that he should choose, to announce his wishes and pro-
cure the satisfaction desired, a man accustomed to [live in]
the country, unknown from the obscurity of his name, not
acquainted with city matters, [and] perhaps not knowing
what a dancer is ? And if he indeed knew, [as he must

1 Lit., " draughts of air."

2 So, by omitting two letters, all edd. except 1st and Ursinus, which
retain MS. adult-er-se — " adulterous."

3 Lit., " light."

4 40 in Orelli. The sis., 1st edd., and Ursinus want si.
6 Lit., "and restored."

6 The MS. and Ursinus read reddere-t — " if he was to restore ; " cor-
rected, as above, by omission of t.

BOOK vii.] A ENOBI US AD VERSUS GENTES. 355

have known] if he was a diviner,1 that this fellow would
refuse to obey, would it not have been more natural and
befitting a god, to change the man's mind, and constrain him
to be willing to obey, than to try more cruel methods, and
vent his rage indiscriminately, without any reason, as robbers
do ? For if the old rustic, not being quick in entering upon
anything, delayed in [doing] what was commanded, being
kept back by stronger motives, of what had his unhappy
children been guilty, that [Jupiter's] anger and indignation
should be turned upon them, and that they should pay for
another's offences by being robbed of their lives ? And can
any man believe that he [is] a god [who is] so unjust, so
impious, and who does not observe even the laws of men,
among whom it would be held a great crime to punish one
for another, and to avenge one man's offences upon others ? 2
But, [I am told], he caused the man himself to be seized by
the cruel pestilence. Would it not then have been better,
nay rather, juster, if it seemed that this should be done,
that dread of punishment should be first excited by the father,
who 3 had been the cause of such passion by 4 his disobedient
delay, than to do violence to the children, and to consume
and destroy innocent persons to make him sorrowful 1 5
What, pray, was [the meaning of] this fierceness, this cruelty,
which [was] so great that, his offspring being dead, it after-
wards terrified the father by his own danger ! But if he
had chosen to do this long before, that is, in the first place,
not only would not the innocent brothers have been cut off,
but the indignant purpose of the deity also would have been
known. But certainly, [it will be said], when he had done
his duty by announcing the vision, the disease immediately
left him, and the man was forthwith restored to health.
And what is there to admire in this if he removed6 the
evil which he had himself breathed [into the man], and

i Le. if he is a god. Cf. iii. 20. 2 Lit., " the necks of."

3 Lit., "the terror of coercion should begin from the father with whom.'1

4 Lit., " even," et. B Lit., " to his grief."

6 The MS. reads relt-ulit, emended ret- — " gave back," i.e. got rid of,
by 1st ed. and Ursinius ; and rep-, as above, by Gelenius and others.

356 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vn.

vaunted himself with false pretence? But if you weigh the
circumstances thoroughly, there was greater cruelty than
kindness in his deliverance, for [Jupiter] did not preserve
him to the joys of life [who was] miserable and wishing to
perish after his children, but to learn his solitariness and the
agonies of bereavement.

44.1 In like manner we might go through the other narra-
tives, and show that in these also, and in expositions of these,
[something] far different from what the gods should be is
said and declared about them, as in this very [story] which
I shall nest relate, one or two [only] being added to it, that
disgust may not be produced by excess.2 After certain gods
were brought from among nations dwelling beyond the sea,
you say, and after temples were built to them, after their
altars were heaped with sacrifices, the plague-stricken people
grew strong [and] recovered, and the pestilence fled before
the soundness of health which arose. What gods, say, I
beseech? ^Isculapius, you say, the god of health, from
Epidaurus, and [now] settled in the island in the middle of
the Tiber. If we were disposed to be very scrupulous in
dealing with your assertions, we might prove by your own
authority that he was by no means divine who had been
conceived and born from a woman's womb, who had by
yearly stages reached that term of life at which, as is related
in your books, a thunderbolt drove him at once from life and
light. But we leave this question : let the son of Coronis be,
as you wish, one of the immortals, and possessed of the ever-
lasting blessedness 3 of heaven. From Epidaurus, however,
what was brought except an enormous serpent? If we
trust the annals, and ascribe to them well-ascertained truth,
nothing else, as it has been recorded. What shall we say
then ? That JEsculapius, whom you extol, an excellent, a

1 41 in Orelli.

2 In the MS. and both Roman edd. the section translated on p. 365 is
inserted here. Ursinus, however (pp. 210-11), followed by Heraldus
(312-13), enclosed it in brackets, and marked it with asterisks. In all
other edd. it is either given as an appendix, or wholly rejected.

3 Lit., " sublimity."

BOOK vii.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 357

venerable god, the giver of health, the averter, preventer,
destroyer of sickness, is contained within the form and out-
line of a serpent, crawling along the earth as worms are
wont to do, which spring from mud; he rubs the ground
with his chin and breast, dragging himself in sinuous coils ;
and that he may be able to go forward, he draws on the last
part of his body by the efforts of the first.

45.1 And as we read that he used food also, by which
bodily existence is kept up, he has a large gullet, that he
may gulp down the food sought for with gaping mouth ; he
has a belly to receive it, and 2 a place where he may digest
the flesh which he has eaten and devoured, that blood may
be given to his body, and his strength recruited;3 he has
also a draught, by which the filth is got rid of, freeing his
body from a disagreeable burden. Whenever he changes
his place, and prepares to pass from one region to another,
he does not as a god fly secretly through the stars of heaven,
and stand in a moment where something requires his pre-
sence, but, just as a dull animal [of earth], he seeks a convey-
ance on which he may be borne ; he avoids the waves of the
sea ; and that he may be safe and sound, he goes on board
ship along with men ; and that god of the common safety
trusts himself to weak planks and to sheets of wood joined
together. We do not think that you can prove and show
that that serpent was ^Esculapius, unless you choose to bring
forward this pretext, that you should say that the god changed
himself into a snake, in order that he might be able4 to deceive
[men as to] himself, who he was, or to see what men were.
But if you say this, the inconsistency of your own statements
will show how weak and feeble such a defence is.5 For if the
god shunned being seen by men, he should not have chosen to
be seen in the form of a serpent, since in any form whatever

1 42 in Orelli.

2 So the edd., reading et for MS. tit (according to Crusius).

3 Lit., " restoration be supplied to his strength."

4 So Gelenius, merely adding t to the MS. posse. The passage is, how-
ever, very doubtful.

5 Lit., " how weakly and feebly it is said."

358 THE SEVEN BOORS OF [Boos vir.

he was not to be other than himself, but [always] himself.
But if, on the other hand, he had been intent on allowing
himself to be seen — he should not have refused to allow men's
eyes to look on him * — why did he not show himself such as he
knew that he was in his own divine power?2 For this was pre-
ferable, and much better, and more befittinghis august majesty,
than to become a beast, and be changed into the likeness of a
terrible animal, and afford room for objections, which cannot
be decided,3 as to whether he was a true god, or something
different and far removed from the exalted nature of deity.

46.4 But, says [my opponent], if he was not a god, why,
after he left the ship, [and] crawled to the island in the
Tiber, did he immediately become invisible, and cease to be
seen as before? Can we indeed know whether there was
anything in the way under cover of which he hid himself,
or any opening [in the earth] ? Do you declare, say your-
selves, what that was, or to what race of beings it should be
referred, if your service of certain personages is [in itself]
certain.6 Since the case is thus, and the discussion deals
with your deity, and your religion also, it is your part to
teach, and yours to show what that was, rather than to wish
to hear our opinions and to await our decisions. For we,
indeed, what else can we say than that which took place and
was seen, which has been handed down in all the narratives,
and has been observed by means of the eyes ? This, how-
ever, undoubtedly we say [was] a colubra6 of very power-
ful frame and immense length, or, if the name is despicable,
[we say it was] a snake,7 we call it a serpent,8 or any other

1 These words, non debuit oculorum negare conspectui, should, Orelli
thinks, be omitted ; and certainly their connection with the rest of the
sentence is not very apparent.

2 Lit., " he was, and such as he had learned that he was, contained
in the power of his divinity."

3 Lit., "to ambiguous contradictions." * 43 in Orelli.

5 Lit., " if your services of certain persons are certain," i.e. if these
facts on which your worship is built are well ascertained.

6 What species of snake this was, is not known ; the Latin is therefore
retained, as the sentence insists on the distinction.

7 Aligner*. 6 Serpenlem.

BOOK vii.] ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 359

name which usage has afforded to us, or the development of
language devised. For if it crawled as a serpent, not sup-
porting itself and walking on feet,1 but resting upon its belly
and breast; if, being made of fleshly substance, it [lay]
stretched out in 2 slippery length ; if it had a head and tail,
a back covered with scales, diversified by spots of various
colours ; if it had a mouth bristling with fangs, and ready to
bite, what else can we say than that it was of earthly origin,
although of immense and excessive size, although it exceeded
in length of body and [greatness] of might that which was
slain by Regulus by the assault of his army ? But [if] we
think otherwise, we subvert3 and overthrow the truth. It
is yours, then, to explain what that was, or what was its
origin, its name, and nature. For how could it have been a
god, seeing that it had those things which we have mentioned,
which gods should not have if they intend to be gods, and
to possess this exalted title ? After it. crawled to the island
in the Tiber, forthwith it was nowhere to be seen, by which
it is shown that it was a deity. Can we, then, know whether
there was there anything in the way under cover of which it
hid itself,4 or some opening [in the earth], or some caverns and
vaults, caused by huge masses being heaped up irregularly,
into which it hurried, evading the gaze of the beholders?
For what if it leaped across the river? what if it swam
across it ? what if it hid itself in the dense forests ? It
is weak reasoning from this,5 to suppose that that serpent
was a god because with all speed it withdrew itself from the
eyes [of the beholders], since, by the same reasoning, it can
be proved, on the other hand, that it was not a god.

47.6 But if that snake was not a present deity, [says my

1 Lit., " bearing himself on feet, nor unfolding below his own goings."

2 Lit., " to a."

3 So Hild. and Oehler, reading labefac-t-amus for the sis. -i-.

4 This sentence alone is sufficient to prove that these chapters were
never carefully revised by their author, as otherwise so glaring repeti-
tions would certainly have been avoided.

5 Here the MS. and both Roman edd. insert the last clause, " what
. . . forests."

0 44 in Orelli.

860 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vn.

opponent], why, after its arrival, was the violence of the
plague overcome, and health restored to the Roman people ?
We, too, on the other hand, bring forward [the question],
If, according to the books of the fates and the responses of
the seers, the god JEsculapius was ordered to be invited to
the city, that he might cause it to be safe and sound from
the contagion of the plague and of pestilential diseases, and
came without spurning [the proposal] contemptuously, as
you say, changed into the form of serpents, — why has the
Roman state been so often afflicted with such disasters, so
often at one time and another torn, harassed, and diminished
by thousands, through the destruction of its citizens times
without number? For since the god is said to have been
summoned for this purpose, that he might drive away utterly
all the causes by which pestilence was excited, it followed that
the state should be safe, and should be always maintained
free from pestilential blasts, and unharmed. But yet we see,
as was said before, that it has over and over again had seasons
made mournful by these diseases, and that the manly vigour
of its people has been shattered and weakened by no slight
losses. Where, then, was JEsculapius ? where that [deliverer]
promised by venerable oracles? Why, after temples were
built, and shrines reared to him, did he allow a state deserv-
ing his favour to be any longer plague- stricken, when he had
been summoned for this purpose, that he should cure the
diseases which were raging, and not allow anything of the
sort which might be dreaded to steal on [them afterwards] ?
48.1 But some one will perhaps say that the care of such
a god has been denied 2 to later and following ages, because
the ways in which men now live are impious and objec-
tionable ; that it brought help to our ancestors, on the con-
trary, because they were blameless and guiltless. Now this
might perhaps have been listened to, and said with some
reasonableness, either if in ancient times all were good with-
out exception, or if later times produced3 only wicked people,

1 45 in Orelli. 2 Lit., " wanting."

8 The MS., 1st ed., Hild., and Oehler read gener-ent, corrected in the
rest, as above, -arenl.

BOOK vii.] ARNOBIUS AD VERSUS GENTES. 361

and no others.1 But since this is the case that in great peoples,
in nations, nay, in all cities even, men have been of mixed 2
natures, wishes, manners, and the good and bad have been
able to exist at the same time in former ages, as well as in
modern times, it is rather stupid to say that mortals of a
later day have not obtained the aid of the deities on account
of their wickedness. For if on account of the wicked of
later generations the good men of modern times have not
been protected, on account of the ancient evil-doers also the
good of former times should in like manner not have gained
the favour of the deities. But if on account of the good of
ancient times the wicked of ancient times were preserved
also, the following age, too, should have been protected,
although it was faulty on account of the good of later times.
So, then, either that snake gained the reputation of [being]
a saviour while he had been of no service at all, through his
being brought [to the city] when the violence of the disease 3
was already weakened and impaired, or the hymns of the
fates must be said to have been far from giving4 true indi-
cations, since the remedy given by them is found to have
been useful, not to all in succession, but to one age only.

49.5 But the Great Mother, also, says [my opponent],
being summoned from Phrygian Pessinus in precisely the
same way by command of the seers, was a cause of safety
and great joy to the people. For, on the one hand, a long-
powerful enemy was thrust out from the position he had
gained in 6 Italy ; and, on the other, its ancient glory was
restored to the city by glorious and illustrious victories, and
the boundaries of the empire were extended far and wide,
and their rights as freemen were torn from races, states,
peoples without number, and the yoke of slavery imposed on

1 Lit., "all wicked and distinguished by no diversity."

2 Lit., "the human race has been mixed in," etc.

3 So all edd., reading m morbi, except Hild., who retains the MS. vi
urbi, in which case the brackets should enclose "of the disease," instead
of " to the city." The construction, however, seems to make it impos-
sible to adhere to the MS.

4 Lit., " to have erred much from."

5 46 in Orelli. 6 Lit., " from the possession of Italy."

362 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF [BOOK vn.

them, and many other things accomplished at home and
abroad established the renown and dignity of the race with
irresistible power. If the histories tell the truth, and do not
insert what is false in their accounts of events, nothing else
truly l is said to have been brought from Phrygia, sent by
King Attalus, than a stone, not large, which could be carried
in a man's hand without any pressure — of a dusky and black
colour — not smooth, but having little corners standing out,
and which to-day we all see put in that image instead of a
face, rough and unhewn, giving to the figure a countenance
by no means lifelike.2

50.3 What shall we say then? Was Hannibal, that
famous Carthaginian, an enemy strong arid powerful, be-
fore whom the fortunes of Rome trembled in doubt and
uncertainty, and its greatness shook — was he driven from
Italy by a stone?4 was he subdued by a stone? was he made
fearful, and timid, and unlike himself by a stone? And
with regard to Rome's again springing to the height of
power and royal supremacy, was nothing done by wisdom,
nothing by the strength of men ; and, in returning to its
former eminence, was no assistance given by so many and
so great leaders by their military skill, or by their acquaint-
ance with affairs? Did the stone give strength to some,
feebleness to others ? Did it hurl these down from success,
raise the fortunes of others [which seemed] hopelessly over-
thrown ? And what man will believe that a stone taken
from the earth, having 5 no feeling, of sooty colour and
dark6 body, was the mother of the gods? or who, again,
would listen to this (for this is the only alternative), that
the power7 of any deity dwelt in pieces of flint, within8 its

1 So all edd. to Orelli, adding -em to the MS. quid.

2 Lit., " a face too little expressed with imitation."

3 47 in Orelli. 4 Lit., " did a stone drive," etc.

5 Lit., " moved by."

6 So the MS. and edd.; but, on account of the unnecessary repetition,
Ursinus proposed to delete atri. Unger (Anal. Propert. p. 87) has sug-
gested very happily arti — " of confined, i.e. small body."

7 Vim, suggested by Orelli, and adopted by Hild. and Oehler.

8 Lit., "subjected to."

BOOK vii.] AENOBIUS ADVERSUS GENTES. 363

mass,1 and hidden in its veins? And how was the victory
procured if there was no deity in the Pessinuntine stone ?
We may say, by the zeal and valour of the soldiers, by prac-
tice, time, wisdom, reason ; we may [say], by fate also, and
the alternating fickleness of fortune. But if the state of
affairs was improved, and success and victory were regained,
by the stone's assistance, where was the Phrygian mother at
the time when the commonwealth was bowed down by the
slaughter of so many and so great armies, and was in danger
of utter ruin ? Why did she not thrust herself before the
threatening, the strong [enemy] ? Why did she not crush
and repel assaults 2 so terrible before these awful blows fell,
by which all the blood was shed, and the life even failed,
the vitals being almost exhausted? She had not been
brought yet, [says my opponent], nor asked to show favour.
Be it so ; 3 but a kind helper never requires to be asked,
always offering assistance of his own accord. She was
not able, [you say], to expel the enemy and put him to
flight, while still separated from Italy 4 by much sea and
land. But to a deity, if really one,5 nothing whatever is
remote, to whom the earth is a point, and by whose nod all
things have been established.

51.6 But suppose that the deity was present in that very
stone, as you demand should be believed : and what mortal
is there, although he may be credulous and very ready to
listen to any fictions you please, who would consider that
she either was a goddess at that time, or should be now so
spoken of and named, who at one time desires these things,
at another requires those, abandons and despises her worship-
pers, leaves the humbler provinces, and allies herself with more

1 So Hild. and Oehler, reading moli for the unintelligible MS. more.

2 Lit., " so great assaults of war."

3 So Oehler, adding -o to the MS. est. The word immediately preced-
ing is in the MS. pavorem — " panic," which is of course utterly out of
place, and is therefore corrected, as above, /- in all edd., except 1st,
Ursinus, and Hild.

4 So— a& Italia— Oehler has admirably emended the MS. habitdbilia.
6 Lit., " if he is." 6 48 in Orelli.

364 THE SEVEN BOOKS OF ARNOBIUS. [BOOK VH.

powerful and richer peoples, truly l loves warfare, and wishes
to be in the midst of battles, slaughter, death, and blood ?
If it is characteristic of the gods (if only they are true gods,
and those who it is fitting should be named according to
the meaning of this word and the power of divinity) to do a
nothing wickedly, nothing unjustly, to show2 themselves
equally gracious to all men without any partiality, [would]
any man [believe] that she was of divine origin, or showed3
kindness worthy of the gods, who, mixing herself up with
the dissensions of men, destroyed the power of some, gave
and showed favour to others, bereft some of their liberty,
raised others to the height of power, — who, that one state
might be pre-eminent, having been born to be the bane of
the human race, subjugated the guiltless world?

1 All edd., except Hild. and Oehler, begin a new sentence here,
and change the construction, seemingly following the mistake of the
1st ed.

2 " To do ... to show;" so the edd., dropping -nt from the MS.
facere-nt . . . prasbere-nt.

8 Lit., " showed." Ursinus and Heraldus supposed that some para-
graphs are now wanting which were originally found here. It should
be noticed that in the MS. the usual subscription is found denoting
the end of a book. " The seventh book of Arnovius (sic) ends, the
eighth (i.e Octavius of Minucius Felix) begins," so that the present
arrangement is not due to the binder, nor clearly to the copyist who
wrote these words. Nothing can be more certain than that we do
not have these chapters as Arnobius intended to leave them; but
there is not the slightest reason to suppose that he actually left
them otherwise than they have come down to us. Remembering this,
we may well suppose that we have only the first draught of them.
If so, the difficulties vanish, for nothing would be more natural than
that, when Arnobius was drawing near the close of his work, the
ideas of the conclusion in which the discussion was to be fairly summed
up should force themselves upon his attention, and that he should
therefore turn aside at once to give them expression roughly, without
seeking completeness and elaboration, and should then hastily resume
his argument, of course with the intention of afterwards revising and
rearranging the whole. We may infer that the rearrangement was
never effected, as there are sufficient proofs that the revision was never
accomplished, whatever may have been the reason.

APPENDIX.

[This section, which is found in the us. after the first sentence of ch.
44, was retained in the text of both Eoman editions, marked off,
however, by asterisks in that of Ursinus, but was rejected by
Gelenius and later editors as the useless addition of some copyist.
Oehler alone has seen that it is not " a collection of words gathered
carelessly and thoughtlessly" (Hildebrand), and maintained that
we have in it the corrections of Arnobius himself. If the three
paragraphs are read carefully, it will be observed that the first is a
transposition and reconstruction of the first two sentences of ch.
89 ; the second a revision of the interrogations in ch. 41, but with
the sentence which there precedes placed after them here, whilst the
third is made up of the same sentences in a revised and enlarged
form. Now this must be regarded as conclusive evidence against
the hypothesis that these sentences were originally scribbled care-
lessly on the margin, and afterwards accidentally incorporated ia
the text. Cf. p. 347, n. 3.]

|E do not deny that all these things which have been
brought forward by you in opposition are con-
tained in the writings of the annalists. For we
have ourselves also, according to the measure
and capacity of our powers, read these same things, and
know that they have been alleged ; but the whole discussion
hinges upon this : whether these are gods who you assert
are furious when displeased, and are soothed by games and
sacrifices, or are something far different, and should be
separated from the notion even of this, and from its power.

For who, in the first place, thinks or believes that those
are gods who are lost in joyful pleasure at theatrical shows l
and ballets, at horses running to no purpose; who set out
from heaven to behold silly and insipid acting, and grieve
that they are injured, and that the honours due to them are
1 Lit., " motions."

866 APPENDIX.

•withheld if the pantomimist halts for a little, or the player,
being wearied, rests a little ; who declare that the dancer
has displeased them if some guilty [fellow] passes through
the middle of the circus to suffer the penalty and punish-
ment of his deeds? All which things, if they be sifted
thoroughly and without any partiality, will be found to be
alien not only to the gods, but to any man of refinement,
even if he has not been trained to the utmost gravity and
self-control.1

For, in the first place, who is there who would suppose
that those had been, or believe that they are, gods, who have
a nature which tends to2 mischief and fury, and lay these3
aside again, being moved by a cup of blood and fumigation
with incense; who spend days of festivity, and [find] the
liveliest pleasure in theatrical shows4 and ballets; who set
out from heaven to see geldings running in vain, and with-
out any reason, and rejoice that some of them pass [the rest],
that others are passed,5 rush on, leaning forward, and, with
their heads towards the ground, are overturned on their
backs with the chariots [to which they are yoked], are
dragged along crippled, and limp with broken legs; who
declare that the dancer has displeased them if some wicked
fellow passes through the middle of the circus to suffer the
punishment and penalty of his deeds; who grieve that they
are injured, and that the honours due to them are withheld
if the pantomimist halts for a little, the player, being wearied,
rests a little, that puer matnmus happens to fall, stumbling
through some 6 unsteadiness ? Now, if all these things are

1 Lit., "to the heights (apices) of gravity and weight," i.e. of that
constancy of mind which is not moved by trifles.

2 Lit., " of hurting and raging."
8 i.e. evil dispositions.

4 Lit., "motions."

5 So the MS., according to Crusius, inserting transiri, which is omitted
by Hild., either because it is not in the Jis., or because he neglected
to notice that Orelli's text was deficient. If omitted, we should trans-
late, "that some pass, leaning forward, and rush with their heads
towards the ground."

* Lit., " of something."

APPENDIX. 367

considered thoroughly and without any partiality, they are
found to be perfectly l alien not only to the [character of
the] gods, but to that of any man of common sense, even
although he has not been trained to zealous pursuit of truth
by becoming acquainted with what is rational.
1 Lit., "far aad far."

INDICES.

I.— AUTHORS REFERRED TO BY ARNOBIUS.

PAGE

Acherontic books, . . .131

r*<i*
211

JEVms, . . 176

Homer II i 4°3

Aethlius, .... 283
Antias 222
Antiochus, Histories, ix., . 277
Apollodorus 207

xiv. 312,
Od. 296 sqq., .

215

207

°7S

Aristotle, . . . .171

Leo Pellaeus, . .

211
131

Butas, Causalla of, . . 241

Ciesius 178
Cicero, de Nat. Dear. i. 35, . 162
iii., . . . 154, 195

,, Fatales, ....
Lucilius, the Fornix of, 68,
Lucretius, iv. 1160,

Manilius, ....

360
242
157

176
175

iii. 21, . . . 196
iii. 33 sqq., . . 296
pro Hose. Am. c. 32, . 262
Tusc. i. 10, . . . 72

Myrtilus, . . . 175,

Nicanor, ....
Nigidius, . . 172, 178,

206

211

179
143

Cleraeus Alexandrinus, Ae-yos
iifOTfivT 154, 195

Orpheus, . . . 242,

250

Clodius, Sextus, de Diis, lib. vi., 241
Cornificius, . . . .176

Panyassis, ....

207

Ctesias, Hist, i., . . .43
Dia<*oras . . . 24 211

Philostephanus, Cypriaca of, .
Pindar, Pyth. iii. 102 sqq., .
Piso

297
206

17fi

Ennius, .... 162, 211
Ephorus, . . . .175
Epicharmus, . . . .207
Epictetus, . . . .147
Euhemerus 211
Euripides, Hercules, . . 344

Fabius 279

Plato, Meno, st. p. 81,
Phcedo, 64, .
„ 81, .
113, .
Phiulrus,
230,
246,
274,
Politicus, 269-274

90
97
83
80
101
69
171
139
79

Flaccus . 241

Republic, 379,

133

Granius, . .171, 176, 279
Heraclitus, . . . 124, 253

„ 457,
ThecEtetus, 158,
173,
Timceus, 21, .

54
70
78
198

Hermippus, .... 43
Hesiod, Theog. 77-79, . . 176
Hieronymus 208
AKNOB.

„ 22, . 8
„ 41 ; 91, 103, 119,
Plautus
i! A

,11

120
343

370

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

Plutarch,
Polemo, . .

PAGE

. 208
. 208

FAOH

Timotheus, .... 227
Trebatius, . . . 340

Pomponius, Marsyas of,
Posidippus,
Ptolemaeus, History of
pator, lib. i.,

Sammonicus, .
Sophocles, Trachinice,
Sosibius,

Tarentine poet,
Theodorus,

. 68
286, 297
Pldlo-
. 278

. 279
217, 344
. 208

. 244
. 211

Valerianus 279
Valerius, .... 230
Varro, 176, 178, 179, 18C, 283, 307
depopulo Romano, i., . 232
de Admirandis, . . 274
Polyandria, . . . 278
Saturce Memppenc, . 299
Virgil, Mn. vi. 472, . .91

Zeno, . 270

IL— INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

ABDERA, proverbial for stupidity,
236.

Abusive language, punished by law,
216.

Acantho, mother of the fourth Sun,
196.

Acdestis, birth of, 227 ; a herma-
phrodite, 227 ; self-mutilated by
the craft of Bacchus, 228 ; love of
Attis, 229 ; fatal consequences of
his fury, 230.

Achaia, Christianity attested by
miracles in, 76.

Acheron, 80, 253.

Achilles, 209.

Aoorns and chestnuts, the food of
primitive men, 87, 136.

Acrisius, buried in temple of Minerva
at Larissa, 277.

Actseon, the horned hunter, 174.

Actors, freed from taxes, 217.

Admetus, served by Apollo, 207.

Adonis, loved by Proserpine, 209.

Adulterers, punished with death,
205.

JSacus, son of Jupiter, first builder
of temples, 274 ; loved by the Ne-
reid, 209.

^Elius, held that the Novensiles were
the Muses, 176, 177.

yEneas, son-in-law of Latinus, 141 ;
son of Venus, 209 ; deified, 177.

^seulapius, son of Coronis, 27 ;
killed by lightning, 32, 206 ; dei-
fied because he discovered use of
herbs, 29, 32, 177 ; giver of health,
135, 167 ; distinguished by his
staff, 301 ; golden beard torn from
a statue of, 296 ; three gods named,

197 ; vintage festival of, 342 ;
brought to Rome in form of a ser-
pent, 356.

^ther, father of Jupiter, 195 ; shown
not to be a god, 174.

^Ethusa, loved by Apollo, 208.

;Etna, torches of Ceres lit at, 248,
259.

Agdus, Mount, 227.

Agesarchus, 278.

Aii Loeutii, 21.

Alba, founded by Ascanius, 141 ;
flourished for 400 years, 335 ; in-
cense unknown in, 335.

Alban Hill, white bulls sacrificed
on, 138.

Alcibiades, the Hermse modelled
after, 286.

Alcmena, seduced by Jupiter, 140,
245 ; mother of the Theban Her-
cules, 203.

Alcyone, 208.

Alemanni, said to have been over-
come because Christians were to
be found amongst them, 14.

Alimontian mysteries, 252.

Allegorical explanation of myths,
150, 179 : rejected by Aruobius,
ISO.

Alope, loved by Neptune, 208.

Ambiguity of words, Jupiter en-
snared by, 222.

Amphitheatres places of bloodshed
and wickedness, 72.

Amphitrite, loved by Neptune, 208.

Amymone, loved by Neptune, 208.

Anchises, loved by Venus, 27, 209.

Angels' names, used as incantations,
34.

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

371

Animals, man closely allied to the
other, 82, S3, 84, 92 ; man not
morally superior to the other, 315 ;
deified and worshipped, 21.

Ant, Jupiter's conversion into an,
267.

Antiochus of Cyzicum, sacrilege of,
295.

Antiquity, the most fertile source of
errors, 47.

Ancient customs, not adhered to by
heathens as well as by Christians,
137.

Auubis, dog-faced, 301.

Apis, born in the Peloponnese, 28 ;
called Serapis by the Egyptians,
28 ; those punished who revealed
the abode of, 278.

Apollo, son of Jupiter and Latona,
140, 204, 208 ; son of Minerva and
Vulcan, 196, 198 ; accompanied
his mother in her wanderings, 27 ;
found refuge on a floating island,
27 ;' called Clarian, Deliau, Dirty-
inean, Philesian, Pythian, 20 ;
bow-bearing, 27, 204 ; Sminthian,
173 ; deceived those who enriched
his temples, 206 ; served Admetus
and Laomedon, 207 ; pirates plun-
dered and burned temples of, 298 ;
identified with Bacchus and the
sun, 173 ; Eituals of Numa did
not contain name of, 143 ; four
gods named, 197 ; human heads
offered to Dis and Saturn by ad-
vice of, 138 ; and Neptune, the
Penates, 181 ; Hyperoche and
Laodice buried in temple of De-
lian, 277 ; Telmessus buried under
the altar of, 278; god of music,
330 ; mistresses of, 208 ; repre-
sented with lyre and plectrum,
285.

Apollonius, the Magian, 43.

Aquilius, 32.

Arabia, Christianity tested by
miracles in, 76.

Arabians, worshipped an unshaped
stone, 283.

Arcadia, Mars born in, 207.

Archesilas, affirms that man knows
nothing, 72.

Archytas, assigns all things to num-
bers, 72.

Aristotle, adds a fifth element to the
primary causes, 72 ; affirmed that
Minerva was the moon, 171.

Arpros, destruction by fire of temple
of Juno at, 298.

Argus, slain by Mercury, 193, 301.

Armenians, believed that one god
was cause of all divine manifesta-
tions, 195.

Armenian, Zoroaster an, 43.

Arnobius, date of, 13, 141 ; zeal as
a heathen, 31.

Arsinoe, loved by Apollo, 208.

Asia, afflicted with mice and locusts
because of the Christians, 14 ;
Christianity attested by miracles
in, 76.

Asses, sacrificed to Mars by the
Scythians, 207.

Assyrians, war of Bactrians with, 8.

Atellane farces, 344.

Athenians, made their Hermae like
Alcibiades, 286.

Athens, fall of temple of Bacchus
at, 298 ; Cecrops buried in temple
of Minerva at, 277.

Atlantis, the fabled island, 8.

Atlas, prop of the skies, 139 ; grand-
father ot Mercury, 165.

Attalus, sent from Phrvgia to Rome
a stone as the Great Mother, 362.

Attaci, Phrygian name of goats,
229.

Att\.-a, visited by Ceres, 263.

Atiis, worshipped in the temples of
Cybele, 33; son of Nana, 229;
loved by Cybele, 211, 229; self-
mutilation and death of, 230 ;
rites established in honour of,
231 ; explained as the sun, 265.

Aulus, Capitol named from, 279.

Aurora's love of Tithonus, 209.

Aventine, Jupiter drawn down to
the, 223.

BACCHANALIA, two kinds of, 242.

Bacchus, son of Semele, 173, 204;
dashed by lightning from his
mother's womb, 27 ; born again
from his father's thigh, 204 ; giver
of a good vintage, 135 ; represented
as effeminate, 284 ; and as bearing
a drinking-cup, 301 ; phalli dis-
played at rites of, 252 ; identified
with the sun, 173 ; goats sacrificed
to, 328 ; called Evius, 253 ; Ny-
sius, 252 ; Zagreus, 242 ; Brotnius,
204 ; torn in pieces by Titans,
32, 242 ; destruction of temple at
Athens of, 298.

Bacis, the soothsayer, 51.

Bactrian, Zoroaster a, 43.

Bactrians, war of Assyrians with, 8.

Baebulus, the Marian, 43.

372

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

Banquets of the gods, 342.

Bark, used in ancieiit times for
clothing, 136.

Baubo, entertainer of Cerea at
Eleusis, 248.

Beetles, temples erected to, 21.

Bellonse, 21, 168.

Berecyntiaii goddess, 236.

Binding of Mars and Venus, explained
allegorically, 265.

Birthdays of the gods, 343.

Bocchores, 27.

Bon a Dea, story of, 241 ; original
name, 27.

Branch, a, worshipped by the Thes-
pians, 283.

Brides, hair of, arranged with hasta
ccelibaris, 138.

Brimo, Ceres named, 243.

Bromius, name of Bacchus, 204.

Brunda, Simon Magus threw him-
self from house-top at, 77.

Burnus, god of lust, 191.

Cculibaris hasta, used in arranging
hair of brides, 138.

Cseselii, 54.

Csesius' enumeration of the Penates,
178.

Calamities, common to all ages, not
caused by Christians, 6.

Calliope's son, Orpheus, 250.

Canacheni, 299.

Canary Islands, 276.

Cannas, proscription of Sulla com-
pared to the battle of, 262.

Capitol, Tolus Vulcentanus buried
in the, 278 ; named from Olus,
279 ; destroyed by fire, 298 ; struck
by lightning, 351.

Capitoline Jupiter burned along
with the temple, 298.

Capitoline Hill, taken by Titus
Tatius, 186.

Caprotina, name of Juno. 171.

Carians, the, sacrificed dogs to Mars,
207.

Carueades, affirmed man's ignorance
of all things, 72.

Castor and Pollux, called Tyndarian
brothers, 139 ; Dioscori, 204; sons
of Jupiter and Leda, 140, 204 ;
sons of Tyndareus, 27 ; buried in
Lacedaemonia, 208 ; three sets of
gods named, 197.

Castor, famed for his skill in ma-
naging horses, 27.

Castus, a fasting, 240.

Catitnitus, carried off to be a cup-

bearer, 209 ; object of Jupiter's
lust, 245.

Cato, 161.

Cats, temples built to, 21.

Caudine Forks, Romans sent under
the yoke at, 187.

Cecrops, buried in the temple of
Minerva at Athens, 277.

Celeus, daughters of, buried in temple
at Eleusis, 277.

Cerberus, 253.

Ceres, born in Sicily, 27 ; deified
because she discovered use of
bread, 29 ; gives good crops, 135 ;
lusted after Jasion, 209 ; mother
of Jupiter, according to Phry-
gians, 242 ; violated by him, 243 ;
wanderings of, 248 ; her sacred
rites called Grceca, 143 ; identified
with Diana and Luna, 173 ; said
by Csesiua to be one of the Pen-
ates, 178 ; represented with pro-
truding breasts, 157, 301 ; her
temple at Eleusis, 277 ; falling of
rain upon the earth denoted by
union of Jupiter and, 256, 266;
bread denoted by, 268 ; feast iu.
honour of, 343.

Cestus, Juno's, 301.

Chseronea, Plutarch of, 208.

Chaldeans, mysterious learning of,
8 ; believed that one God appeared
in all divine manifestations, 195.

Cbildbirth, Juno set over, 166.

C barms, used to appease unknown
powers, 79.

Christ, recalled men from their
errors, 29 ; revealed God's nature,
29 ; and man's condition and pro-
spects, 30 ; was sent as a Saviour,
44, 55 ; His authority established
by His mighty works, 36, 37, 39,
40, 74; and by His transmitting
this power to His followers, 41,
42 ; said to have been a sorcerer,
34 ; but in Him there was nothing
magical, nothing delusive, 44 ;
helped all who came to Him, 40 ;
access to the light only by, 135 ;
invites all alike, 133 ; did harm
to no one, but declared even to
His enemies the way of salvation,
57 ; divine, 33, 44 ; the universe
thrown into confusion at cruci-
fixion of, 44 ; did not die, but His
human form, 51 ; became incar-
nate, that He might mix with men,
50 ; was crucified for reasons be-
yond humjui comprehension, 52 ;

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

873

the reason for the time of His ap-
pearance with God, 144 ; but an
explanation may be found, 144,
145 ; the divine compassion ex-
tended to those who died before,
132 ; demons put to flight by the
name of, 37 ; the secret thoughts
of men known to, 37.

Christians, worship the supreme
God, 20 ; worship Christ as giver
of eternal life, 31, 101 ; prefer
Christ's friendship to all that is
in the world, 67 ; laughed at for
their faith, 71 ; had more reason
to follow Christ than the heathen
to trust the philosophers, 74 ;
called atheists, 169 ; said to be
stupid and senseless, 21, 78, 160 ;
exiled, tortured, given to the
beasts, burned, 19, 218 ; have
learned not to requite evil with
evil, 9 ; no hope of aid as to this
life held out to, 146 ; death brings
release to, 147 ; accused of being
the cause of all calamities, 3, 6 ;
built no temples, and offered no
sacriaces, 271, 272.

Christianity, novelty of, no real ob-
jection, 136, 138, 140, 142; the
way of salvation, 135.

Chrysippus, object of Jupiter's lust,
209.

Chrysippus, asserted that the world
would be destroyed by fire, 72.

Cbrysis, Juno's priestess, burned at
Argos, 298.

Cicero, the most eloquent of the
Romans, 154.

Cincian law against gifts to advo-
cates, 137.

Cincius, regards the Novensiles as
the gods of conquered states,
deities brought from abroad, 177.

Cinxia, a name of Juno, 171 ; pre-
sides over the loosening of the
zone, 168 ; the Thespians worship
a branch as, 283.

Cinyras, king of Cyprus, 207; king of
Paphos, 278; deified Venus, a cour-
tezan, 207; was buried in temple
of Veuus, 278 ; founder of the
mysteries of Cyprian Venus, 242.

Circe, mother of the fifth Sun, 196.

Circus, story of re-celebration of the
games of the, 35.

Cleochus (or Clearchus), buried in
the Diclymseon at Miletus, 278.

Clitor, daughter of, seduced by
Jupiter, 209.

Cnidian Venus, copied from a courte-
zan, 286.

Cocytus, river in Hades, 80.

Ccelus, father of Saturn and Ops by
Hecate, 141, 171 ; of the second
Jupiter, 195 ; of the first Mercury,
196 ; of the Muses, 175 ; of Janus
by Hecate, 170 ; Venus produced
from the genitals of, 206.

Complices and C'onsentes, said to be
the Penates, 178.

Concord, temples built to, 184, 185.

Conserentes dii, parents of Servius
Tullius, 241.

Census, god of devices, 166.

Corniculum, Ocrisia brought to Rome
from, 241.

Cornificius, maintains that Noven-
siles preside over renovation, 177.

Coronis, mother of ^Esculapius, 27.

Corybantes, rites of the, 242.

Coryphasia, epithet of the fourth
Minerva, 197, 199.

Crates, affirms that there are eight
Muses, 175.

Crete, Jupiter born and buried in,
196, 208.

Croniu?, 74.

Cupids, three sets of winged, 197.

Curetes, drowned the criesof Jupiter,
179 ; saved him from death, 206.

Cyceon, the draught offered to Ceres
by Baubo, 249.

Cyllenian, bearer of the caduceus,
172.

Cyprian Venus, statue of, loved by
Pygmalion, 297.

Cyrus, 43.

Cytherean, the, i.e. Venus, 286.

Cyzicum, sacrilege of Antiochus of,
295.

DACTYLI Idrei identified with the

Digiti Samothracii, 179.
Dairas, buried in the enclosure at

Eleusis, 277.
Damigero, a Magian, 43.
Danae, loved by Jupiter, 245.
Dancer stops, expiation required if

the, 213.

Daphne, loved by Apollo, 208.
Dardanus, the Magian, 43 ; Dar-

danus first celebrated rites of the

Phrygian Mother, 143.
Dead, prayers for the, 218.
Decemvirs, decrees of the, 216.
Deluge, Varro's computation of the

time of the, 232 ; human race de-
stroyed by, 8.

374

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

Democritus' atomic theory, 72.

Desires, Venus the mother of the,
168.

Deucalion and Pyrrha, re-peopled
the earth, 227.

Diagoras of Melos, denies that there
are gods, 25, 211.

Dialis, flamen, mitred, 42, 216.

Diana, daughter of Jupiter and
Latona, 139, 204 ; daughter of the
first Minerva, 198; bow-bearing,
found refuge on floating islands,
27; mighty in hunting, 164, 204;
wars of the virgin, 211 ; repre-
sented with thighs half covered,
301 ; an unhewn log worshipped
by the Icarians for, 283 ; fall of
temple at Ephesus of, 298; Leuco-
phryue buried in temple of, 278 ;
shrine in Delian Apollo's temple
of, 277 ; theologians mention three
goddesses named, 197 ; identified
with Ceres and Luna, 173.

Didymseon, Cleochus buried in the
Milesian, 278.

Diespiter, son of Saturn and Ops,
202 ; lusted after his mother Ceres,
243 ; names of some who bore
children to, 140.

Digiti Samothracii, said to be the
Lares, 179, 181.

Dindymene, Pessinuntie, i.e. Cybele
worshipped at Pessinus, 217.

Diomede, plains of, i.e. Cannae, 187.

Dione, bore Venus to Jupiter, 27,
140.

Dionysius, robbed Jupiter and uEscu-
lapius of their beards, 296.

Dionysus (see Bacchus), five gods
named, 197.

Dioscori, sons of Leda and Jupiter,
202.

Dis, identified with Summanus, 275;
human heads offered to, 138 ;
wounded by Hercules, 208 ; alle-
gorical explanation of rape of
Proserpine by, 266, 276 ; gate of,
i.e. Hades, 253.

Discordise, 168.

Dodona, Jupiter of, 26, 298 ; fall of
Jupiter's temple at, 298.

Dogs, employed to guard the capitols,
295.

Dysaules, a goatherd in Attica, 248.

EARTH, the, identified with the Great
Mother, Ceres, and Vesta, 172 ;
a pregnant sow sacrificed to, 329 ;
birthday of, 343.

Egeria, Numa advised by, 223.

Egypt, Christianity attested by
mighty works in, 76 ; Apis called
Serapis in, 27 ; letters invented by
the fifth Mercury in, 196.

Egyptians, dumb animals worshipped
by, 160; Christ said to have stolen
the secrets of His power and teach-
ing from, the, 34 ; punished those
who revealed the dwelling-place of
Apis, 278 ; called the second Mi-
nerva Neith, 198 ; were afraid to
utter the fourth Mercury's name,
196 ; believed that one deity was
manifested under the various di-
vine manifestations, 195.

Electra, seduced by Jupiter, 245.

Elements, number of the primary,
124 ; mistake as to Aristotle's
conception of the elements, 72.

Eleusinia, origin of the, 249, 250;
signs used in the, 251.

Eleusis, Ceres' visit to, 248 ; Dairas
and Immarnachus buried in the
enclosure of, 277 ; temple of Ceres
at, 277.

Eleutherius, temple at Athens of
Liber, 298.

Endymion, loved by Luna, 209.

Ennius, translated works of Euhe-
merus", 211.

Ephesus, fall of Diana's temple at,
298.

Epicadi, 54.

Epicurus, atomic theory of, 72 ;
teaches that the soul is mortal, 97.

Epidaurus, ^Esculapius brought
from, 355; he of, i.e. ^Esculapius,
164.

Epirus, Christianity attested by
mighty works in, 76.

Equity, deified, 185.

EJ echthidse, i.e. Athenians, 251.

Ericthonius, buried in shrine of
Minerva, 277.

Ethiopian sun, Isis tanned by, 27.

Ethiopians, visited by the gods, 276.

Etruria, mother of superstition, 335;
arts of, i.e. charms and sacred
rites, 241.

Etruscans, the, identified Penates,
andConsentes, and Complices, 179.

Eubuleus, a swineherd in Attica,
248.

Eumolpidse, origin of, 248.

Eumolpus, keeper of sheep in Attica,
248.

Europa, seduced by Jupiter, 245 ;
represented on the stage, 343.

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

375

Evius, perform ance of his shameful
promise by, 253.

FABIUS, a favourite of Jupiter, 209.

Fate, all things happen according to,
317.

Fatua Fauna, i.e. Bona Dea, wife
of Faunus, 27, 241 ; unlawful to
bring in myrtle twigs to the rites
of, 241 ; account of her death and
rites, 241.

Fatuse, 21.

Fauni, 21.

Faunus, son of Picus, and father of
Latinus, 71 ; ensnared and bound
by Nutna's craft, 223 ; made the
Aventine his haunt, 223.

Fawn's skin, worn by the initiated,
263.

Februtis, a name of Juno, 171.

Fescennine verses, sung at marriages,
202.

Fetiales, the forms of the, neglected,
137.

Fillets, worn by suppliants, 246.

Fire, the origin of all things, 72.

Flint, people of Pessinus worship a,
283.

Flora, watches over the blossoming
of plants, 166 ; a harlot, 166 ;
shameful actions done openly at
games of, 344.

Floralia, the, 343.

Fluonia (or Fluvionia), a name of
Juna, 171.

Fons, son of Janus, 170.

Fortune, a deity, 135 ; one of the
Penates, according to Caesius,
178, 181 ; represented with a horn
filled with fruit, 301.

Fortuna Virginalis, maidens' gar-
ments offered to, 138.

Frugifer, a god with lion's face
called, 282.

Furies, the, 168, 253.

Forks, Caudine, overthrow of Ro-
mans at, 187.

GABINIUS, the consul, 142.

Goetuli, afflicted with droughts be-
cause of the Christians, 14.

Gain, gods of, 191.

Galatians, Christianity attested by
mighty works among the, 76.

Callus, mutilation of a daughter of,
230, 237.

Galli, priests of the Great Mother,
33 ; beat their breasts, wailing for
Attis, 240, 241.

Ganymede, carried off to satisfy
Jupiter's lust, 267 ; represented
on the stage in ballets, 343.

Garamantes, the tawny, 276.

Gaul, innumerable Christians in, 14.

Geese, the guardians of the Capitol,
295.

Genii of husbands, invoked at mar-
riages, 138.
snii of states, 21.

Genius Jovialis, said to be one of
the Penates, 178, 181.

Germans, irruptions of the, regarded
as special calamities caused by
the Christians, 8.

Ghosts, the Lares said to be, 180.

Gnidus, statue of Venus at, loved
by a young man, 297.

Goats, sacrificed to Bacchus and
Mercury, 328 ; torn in pieces by
bacchanals, 242.

God, the Lord of all things, the
highest existence, 19, 20, 24, 25,
63, 150 ; before all things, 22, 24,
142 ; without form, 24, 158, 346 ;
devoid of sex, 155, 346 ; uncreated,
immortal, everlasting, 24, 102,
142 ; all agree that there is one
supreme, 102 ; cannot be known
by men, 345 ; all-powerful, 101 ;
the creator of all things, 24, 150 ;
the preserver of all things, 113 ;
and the only one who can preserve
souls, 131 ; nothing hurtful or
pernicious proceeds from, 123 ;
all, without exception, have ex-
perienced the compassion of, 132 ;
all men know, by nature, 64 ; and
no one doubts the existence of, 25,
130 ; although some deny it, 125 ;
is not Jupiter, 27.

Gods, the, corruptible by nature,
according to Plato, 103 ; born at
some time, 24, 139, 346 ; of both
sexes, 154, 346 ; have mistresses,
brides, wives, 202 ; are hushed to
sleep and awakened by their wor-
shippers' hymns, 214, 342 ; are
parched with thirst, 339 ; eat and
drink, delighting in splendid ban-
quets, 214, 334; are exposed to
attacks of disease, etc., 164 ; can-
not defend themselves, 16, 296,
302 ; make war upon each other,
and are wounded, 215 ; take plea-
sure in shameful sights, 343, 344 ;
and still more shameful acts, 209,
214 ; accuse the cruel fates, 215 ;
are ignorant of the future, 163 ;

376

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

are artificers like mortals, 163 ;
even act the part of slaves, 207,
211 ; are washed to make them
clean, 342 ; were supposed to he
angry at the Christians, 3, 18,
347 ; but had greater reason to be
enraged at their worshippers, 21,
157, 161, 212, 219 ; were immor-
tal, not in themselves, but through
God's gift, 103 ; each set over
some one thing, 135, 166 ; the
true, do not wish for sacrifices,
307, 348 ; and are not soothed by
them, 316 ; are free from pas-
sions, 272, 311 ; were supposed to
dwell in their images, 294 ; al-
though these were made of vile
materials, 288 ; lay aside their
anger when they receive sacrifices,
314, 318 ; accuse and make de-
fences, 165 ; sinister, 187, 330 ;
lesser, 64 ; Syrian, sprung from
eggs, 28 ; of conquered states in-
troduced by Romans into their
families, 177 ; suppliants to some
veiled, to others uncovered the
head, 181.

Graeca, rites of Ceres, 143.

Gratiua, loved by Praxiteles, and
taken as model of Cnidian Venus,
286.

Grits mixed with salt, or sacrificial
meal offered to the gods, 167, 225.

Grundules Lares, 21.

Guardian deities, favour of, with-
held, 167.

Guilt, contracted if the dancer
halted or musician was silent, 213.

HADES, punishment in, 96 ; exist-
ence of, denied, 327.

Hammon, represented with a ram's
horns, 284.

Hannibal's invasion of Italy, Phry-
gian mother's worship introduced
at the time of, 142, 361 ; driven
out of Italy by the goddess, 362.

Happiness, deified and worshipped,
184, 185.

Hasta caelibaris, hair of brides ar-
ranged with, 138.

Hearths, presided over by the god
Lateranus, 189.

Heathen, the, hatred of the Chris-
tians by, 26, 147, 218; reviled
Christians as illiterate, 48 ; dis-
honoured their own gods, 153,
157, 255 ; dishonoured their gods
in sacrificing to them, 324, 340.

Hecate, mother of Saturn and Ops,
141 ; mother of Janus, 170.

Helenus, the soothsayer, 51.

Hellespontian Priapu?, 157.

Henna, grove of, whence Proserpine
was carried off, 259.

Heraclitus, referred the origin of all
things to fire, 72.

Hercules, burned alive after pun-
ishment, 27, 32 ; son of Jupiter
and Alcmena, 140, 209 ; this the
Theban defended by his club and
hide, 204 ; worshipped as divine,
144, 153 ; a mortal, deified, 177 ;
wounded by Hippocoon's children,
208 ; entangled in robe of Nessus,
217 ; violated the fifty daughters
of Thestius, 209; wounded Dis
and Juno, 208 ; put an end to
human sacrifices in Italy, 138 ;
was a slave at Sardis, 207 ; burned
on Mount (Eta after an attack of
epilepsy, 208; the Theban, burned
on Mount (Eta, 27; the Phoenician,
buried in Spain, 27; six gods
named, 197 ; deified because he
subdued robbers, wild beasts, and
serpents, 29.

Herrnse at Athens like Alcibiades,
286.

Heroes, of immense and huge bodies,
145.

Heroic ages, incense unknown in
the, 335.

Hesperides, golden apples of the, 242.

Hippo of Melos, 211.

Hippocoon's children, Hercules
wounded by, 208.

Hippothoe, seduced by Neptune, 20S.

Hirtius and Pansa, deluge not quite
two thousand years before the
consulship of, 232.

Honour, deified and worshipped,
184, 185.

Hosthanes, grandfather of the Ar-
menian Zoroaster, 43.

Human sacrifices, offered to Dis and
Saturn, 138.

Hyacinthus, 209.

Hylas, 209.

Hyperboreans, 278.

Hyperiona, mother by Jupiter of the
second Sun, 196, 204.

Hyperoche, buried in the shrine of
Diana, 277.

Hypsipyle, loved by Apollo, 208.

IA, bride of Attis, 230 ; her blood
turued into violets, 230.

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

377

laclms nursed (or loved) by Ceres,
157.

lalysus, son of the fourth Sun, 19G.

Icarians, the, worship an unhewn
log, 283.

Idaci Dactyli, Greek name of Digit!
Samothracii, 179.

Ignorance the Jot of man, 72.

Ilium, girt with walls by Apollo and
Neptune, 178.

Immarnachus, buried in the enclo-
sure at Eleusis, 277.

Incense, unknown in the heroic age,
335 ; not used by the Etruscans
in their rites, 335 ; nor at Alba,
335 ; nor by Romulus and Numa,
335 ; termed Panchaean gum, 33G.

India, Christianity attested by
mighty works in, 76 ; Liber
sought to make himself master
of, 211.

Indians, the, believed that one god
showed himself in all the mani-
festations of the divine, 195.

Indigetes, deified mortals, 54.

Indigetes, living in the Nunricius,
27.

Inferium vinum, phrase used in
libations, 340.

Inuus, guardian of flocks and herds,
166.

Iphigenia, stags spoken of instead
of, 258.

Isis, Ethiopian, 27 ; Egyptian, 211 ;
lamenting her lost child and hus-
band torn in pieces, 27 ; worship
of, introduced after consulship of
Piso and Gabinius, 142 ; statue
of, burned, 298.

Itali, Saturn concealed in the terri-
tories of the, 206.

Images, Christ raised men's thoughts
from senseless, 31; formed of clay,
31, 150, 292; bones, stones, brass,
silver, gold, wood, and other ma-
terials, 288; made like infamous
men and women, 286, 287 ; the
gods said to be worshipped
through, 280; fanciful shape of
some, 282 ; disregarded by birds
and beasts, 291 ; the gods caused
to dwell in, 292 ; must be defend-
ed by men, notwithstanding the
indwelling divinity, 295; despoiled
by Antiochus and Dionysius, 296;
used lewdly, 297 ; and even
utterly consumed by fire, 298 ;
set up to strike evil-doers with
terror, 300.

Italy, visit of Hercules to, 138.

JANTCUHTM, founded by Janus, 27.
170.

Janus, 153 ; son of Ccelus and
Hecate, 170; husband of Ju-
turna and father of Fons, 170 ;
first king in Italy, 170 ; repre-
sented as double-faced, and carry-
ing a spiked key, 301 ; said to be
the world, the year, the sun, 170;
supposed to procure a hearing for
suppliants, 170 ; and therefore
mentioned first in all prayers, 170.

Jasion, loved by Ceres, 209.

Jovialis, genius, one of the Penates,
178, 181.

Julian, a magian, 43.

Juno, 135, 153, 204, 140 ; daughter
of Saturn and Ops, 139 ; queen of
the gods, 204 ; wounded by Her-
cules, 208 ; named Lucina, and
aiding women in childbirth, 157,
166 ; said to be the air, 171 ;
destruction of the temple, and
priestess of, 298; and in the Capi-
tol of the statue of, 298; named
Caprotina, Cinxia, Februtis, Flu-
onia, 171 ; Ossipagina, Pomona,
Populonia, 171 ; the cestus of,
301 ; as Cinxia, a branch wor-
shipped for, 283 ; Samians wor-
ship a plank instead of, 283 ; one
of the Penates, 179.

Jupiter, the greatest and best, 26 ;
is not God, 27 ; had father and
mother, 26 ; the Saturnian king,
204 ; son of ^Ether, 195 ; son of
Coalus, 195 ; son of Saturn, 196 ;
of Saturn and Ops, 139, 141, 171,
202 ; born in Crete, 196 ; con-
cealed in Crete, 171 ; buried in
Crete, 196, 208 ; his cries con-
cealed, 179 ; and his life saved
by the Curetes, 206 ; overthrew
his father, 206 ; the acts of, 211 ;
made a meal unwittingly on
Lycaon's son, 206 ; married his
sister, 206 ; attempted to violate
the mother of the gods, 227; lusted
after Alcmena, Danae, Electra, Eu-
ropa, and matrons and maidens
without number, 245, 140 ; even
after the boys Catamitus, 209,
245, and Fabius, 209; ravished
his daughter Proserpine, 244 ; for
lustful purposes became an ant,
a golden shower, a satyr, 267 ; a,
swan, 205, 27; and a 'bull, 205,

378

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

243 ; spoken of as recounting his
amours to his wife, 215 ; said to
be the sun, 171 ; and by others
to be the ether, 171 ; three gods
named, 195; father of Apollo,
Diana, Castor and Pollux, Her-
cules, Liber, Mercury, 139, 204 ;
of the Muses, 139, 175 ; of the
Sun, 196 ; of Hercules, 209, 217 ;
Diespiter, 140, 202; fall at Do-
dona of the temple of, 298; destruc-
tion of the statue of Capitoline,
298, 351 ; termed Capitoline, 42,
298 ; the Thunderer, 298 ; the
Olympian, 286; the Supreme,
139; the Stygian, i.e. Pluto, 139;
Verveceus, 244; of Dodona, 19,
298 ; bulls sacrificed to, 329 ; re-
presented with a thunderbolt in
his right hand, 301 ; and as driv-
ing in a winged chariot, 171 ;
gave power to the Novensiles to
wield his thunder, 177; Pales the
steward of, 178 ; the counsellors
of, 178, 179 ; one of the Penates,
179; represented as an adulterer,
217 ; and as easily overreached,
222, 224 ; forced to leave heaven
by Numa, 223 ; statues of, dis-
honoured, 296 ; descent of rain
signified by the embraces of Ceres,
256, 266 ; the feast of, 342 ; ludi
circenses celebrated in honour of,
350.
Juturna, wife of Janus, 170.

KINGS, speaking against, considered
treason, 216.

Kronos, explained as chronos, i.e.
time, 170 ; son of Ccalus and pro-
genitor of the d'd magni, 171.

Knees of images touched by sup-
pliants, 291.

LACED^EMON, Castor and Pollux
buried in, 208.

Laodamia, seduced by Jupiter, 245.

Laodice, buried in the shrine of
Diana, 277.

Laomedon, served by Neptune, 207.

Lares, commonly said to be gods of
streets and ways, from the sup-
posed etymology, 179 ; guardians
of houses, 179 : identified some-
times with the Curetes, some-
times with the Digiti Samotbracii,
179 ; identified with the Manes,
180 ; said to be gods of the air,
and also to be ghosts, 180.

Lares Grundules, 21.

Larissa, Acrisius buried in Minerva's
temple at, 277.

Lateranus, the genius of hearths,
189, 193.

Latinus, grandson of Picus, and
son of Faunus, 141 ; father-in-
law of ^neas, 141.

Latium, Saturn concealed in, 206.

Latona, seduced by Jupiter, 245 ;
mother of Apollo and Diana, 27,
139, 164, 204 ; wanderings of, 27.

Laverna, goddess of thieves, 168.

Laurse, Lares said to be derived
from, 179.

Lectisternium of Ceres, 343.

Leda, seduced by Jupiter, 140, 245 ;
mother of the Dioscori, 204 ; re-
presented on the stage, 343.

Left and right, merely relative terms,
187, 188 ; lucky, 188.

Lemnos, Vulcan wrought as a smith
at, 19G, 206.

Leucophryne, buried in Diana's sanc-
tuary, 278.

Libations, in honour of the gods,
338, 339 ; formula used in, 340.

Libels, severely punished, 216.

Libentina, goddess of lust, 191.

Libentini (?), 21.

Liber, a deified mortal, 143, 177;
deified because he taught men to
use wine, 29 ; son of Jupiter and
Semele, 139, 204, 252 ; Indian
campaign of, 211 ; torn in pieces
by the Titans, 32, 242 ; called
Eleutherius, 298 ; Nysius, 252 ;
visit to Tartarus of, 252 ; filthy
practices of, 253 ; allegorical ex-
planation of the tearing in pieces

Libera, i.e. Proserpine, daughter of

Jupiter and Ceres, 244.
Lima, goddess of thresholds, 191.
Limentinus, god of thresholds, 191,

193 ; gives omens in entrails of

the victims, 194.

Limi, preside over obliquities, 192.
Lion, images with face of, 282.
Locusts, destruction of crops by, said

to be caused by Christians, 7, 14.
Locutii, Aii, 21.
Log, worshipped by the Icarians

for Diana, 283.
Lucina, aiding women in childbirth,

164.

1 Lullabies, sung to the gods, 342.
\ Luna, lusted after Endymion, 209 ;
I identified with Diana and Ceres,

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

379

173 ; cannot be a deity if a part

of the world, 174.
Luperca, a goddess named, because

the she-wolf did not rend Romulus

and Remus, 186.
Lust, unnatural, attributed to the

gods, 209.
Lycaon, Jupiter ate part cf the son

of, 206.
Lydia, 229.
Lynceus, piercing gaze of, 205.

MACARUS, father of Megalcon, 206.

Macedonia, Christianity attested by
mighty works in, 76 ; starting-
point of Alexander the Great, 9.

Magi, in heathen ceremonials, relics
of the arts of the, 332; arts of
the, had no good purpose, 35 ;
demons won over by the charms
of the, 131 ; said to raise by their
incantations other gods than those
invoked, 194; enumeration of fa-
mous, 43 ; used herbs and mut-
tered spells in their incantations,
44.

Magian, used as equivalent to sor-
cerer, 34.

Magistrate, insults to a, severely
punished, 216.

Magnesia, Diana's sanctuary at,
278.

Magus, Simon, overthrown by Peter,
77.

Maia, the beautiful, 27 ; mother of
the third Mercury, 27, 140, 196,
204, 284.

Man, ignorant of his own nature,
69 ; such as the lower creatures,
82 ; possessed of reason, 83 ; not
immortal, 95 ; wretchedness of
the life of, 107, 108, 109, 317 ; a
microcosm, 91 ; not necessary in
the universe, 105 ; utmost extent
of life of, 141 ; depraved in coming
into life, 82.

Manes, the Lares said to be the,
180; inhabitants of infernal re-
gions, 327.

Mania, mother of the Lares, ISO.

Manium, dii, 327.

Marcius, a soothsayer, 51.

Marcus Cicero, 161.

Marpesian rock, proverbial com-
parison, 90.

Marpessa, loved by Apollo, 208.

Mars, born in Arcadia (?), 207 ; born
in Thrace, 207 ; said to be Spar-
tanus, 207; set over war, 168;

held prisoner for thirteen months,
207 ; loved by Ceres, 209 ; en-
snared by Vulcan, 207 ; wounded
by men, 207 ; a spear worshipped
by the Romans as, 283 ; dogs and
asses sacrificed to, 207 ; otherwise
Mavors, 285 ; fighting signified
by, 268 ; allegorical explanation
of the binding of Venus and, 265,
266 ; the Romans sooken of as the
race of, 217.

Marriage, forms observed in, 137,
138 ; three modes of contracting,
202 ; advocacy of promiscuous, 54.

Marriages, Fescennine verses sung
at, 202.

Marsi, sold charms against serpent
bites, 99.

Martins Pious, entrapped by Numa's
craft, 223.

Mavors, i.e. Mars, 285.

Medes, Christianity attested by
mighty works amongst, 76.

Megalcon, daughter of Macarus, and
mistress of the Muses, 206.

Megalensia, mode of celebration of,
343.

Meles, son of the river, i.e. Homer,
207.

Mellonia, goddess presiding over
bees and honey, 190 ; supposed to
introduce herself into the entrails
of the victim to give omens, 194.

Memory, wife of Jupiter, 140 ;
mother of the Muses, 175.

Men, sprung from the stones cast
by Deucalion and Pyrrha, 227 ;
in early times of immense size,
145 ; deified because of benefits
conferred on the race, 28, 29 ;
souls shut up in bodies, 79.

Menalippe, seduced by Neptune,
208.

Mens, wife of Jupiter, and mother
of the Muses, 175 ; mother of
Minerva, 172.

Mercury, of service to men, 135,
143 ; son of Jupiter, 139, 204, 196 ;
son of Maia, 27, 140, 196, 204,
284 ; grandson of Atlas, 165 ; five
gods named, 196; lusted after
Proserpina, 196 ; eloquent in
speech, 165, 204 ; bearer of the
caduceus, 172; of the harmless
snakes, 204 ; born on the cold
mountain top, 172 ; presides over
boxing and wrestling, 167 ; and
commercial intercourse and mar-
kets, 172 ; contriver of words,

380

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

and named from the interchange
of speech, 172 ; represented with
•wings, 301 ; and wearing a broad-
brimmed cap, 284, 285 ; beard-
less, 285 ; slayer of Argus, 196,
301 ; a thief, 206 ; termed Cyl-
lenian, 172 ; the second, named
Trophonius, under the earth, 196 ;
the first, son of Coelus, and the
fourth, of the Nile, 196 ; the fifth,
slayer of Argus, and inventor of
letters, 196 ; goats sacrificed to,
328, 329.

Mercury, i.e. Hermes Trismegistus,
78.

Merops, the first builder of temples,
274.

Metrodorus, held the atomic theory,
72.

Midas, first to establish worship of
the Phrygian mother, 143 ; king
of Pessinus, 229 ; wished to give
his daughter in marriage to Attis,
229, 230.

MilesianDidymaeon, Cleochus buried
in the, 278.

Militaria Venus, presiding over the
debauchery of camps, 189.

Mind, the, affected by ailments of
the body, 70.

Minerva, 153; sprung from Jupiter's
head, 140, 172 ; daughter of Mens,
172 ; daughter of Victory, 172 ;
five goddesses named, 196 ; the
first, mother of Apollo by Vulcan,
196 ; the second, identified with
Sais, daughter of the Nile, 190 ;
the fourth, named Coryphasia by
the Messenians, 197; the fifth,
daughter and slayer of Pallas,
197 ; said by some to be one of
the Penates, 179; the wars of,
211 ; worshipped because she dis-
covered the olive, 29 ; gives light
to secret lovers, 207 ; temples of,
used as places of burial, 277 ;
image of, burned, 298 ; a heifer
sacrificed to, 329 ; termed Trito-
nian, 165, 330 ; represented with
a helmet, 301 ; said by Aristotle
to be the moon, 171 ; said to be
depth of ether, and memory, 171 ;
spins and weaves, 165 ; used to
denote weaving, 268 ; citizens of,
i.e. Athenians, 251 ; called Polias,
277.

Money, a goddess, 192.
Montiuus. guardian of mountains,
182.

Moors, 14 ; worshipped the Titans
and Bocchores, 27.

Morning, hymns sung to the deities
in the, 342.

Mother of the gods, married to
Saturn, 172 ; fed Nana with apples,
229 ; a pine brought into the
sanctuary of, 239, 262 ; a flint
worshipped by the people of Pes-
sinus for, 283 ; represented as
bearing a timbrel, 301.

Mother, Great, said to be the earth,
172 ; Attis worshipped in the
temples of, 33 ; represented with
fillets, 217 ; termed Pessinuntic
Dindymene, 217 ; birth and origin
of rites of, 227; did not exist more
than two thousand years before
Christ, 232; brought from Pes-
sinus to repel Hauuibal, 361 ; a
black stone worshipped instead of,
362 ; why represented as crowutd
with towers, 229, 240.

Mother, the Phrygian, first set up
as a goddess, 143.

Mulciber, dressed as a workman,
301.

Murcia, guardianof theslothful, 192.

Muses, the, daughters of Jupiter and
Memory, 139, 175; of Ccelus and
Tellus, 175 ; three sets of Muses,
197; nine in number, 164, 176;
number of, stated differently as
three, four, seven, 175; and eight,
176 ; said by some to be virgins,
by others matrons, 175; identified
with the Novensiles, 176 ; repre-
sented with pipes and psalteries,
301 ; handmaids of Megalcon, 206.

Musician, guilt contracted at the
games by the silence of the, 213.

Mutunus, a deity, 193.

Myndus, Zeno of, 278.

Myrmidon, son of Clitor's daughter,
209.

Mysteries, the pontifical, 332; named
initia, 241 ; of Venus, 242 ; Phry-
gian, 242, 244; of Ceres, 247;
Alimontian, 252, 262.

NJSNIA, goddess of those near death,
190.

Nana, daughter of king Sangarius,
228 ; debauched by an apple, 228,
236 ; kept alive by the mother of
the gods, 229 ; mother of Attis,
229, 236.

Nativities, art of calculating, 139.

Natrix, the deadly, 15.

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

381

Nebridffi, family of the, 2G3.

Neith, name of the second Minerva
in Egypt, 198.

Neinestrinus, god of groves, 190.

Neptune, believed to be serviceable
to men, 135 ; king of the sea,
208, 172, 285 ^brother of Pluto
and Jupiter, 172 ; mistresses of,
2U8 ; girt Ilium with walls, 178 ;
served the Trojan Laomedon, 207;
lord of the fish and shaker of the
earth, 172 ; one kind of Penates
said by the Etruscans to belong
to, 178 ; the Atlantis of, 8 ; armed
with the trident, 172, 285; said
to have been one of the Penates,
178, 181 ; means the outspread
water, 172, 268.

Nereid, loved ^Eacus, 209.

Nile, father of the second Minerva,
196, 198; father of the fourth
Mercury and of Vulcan, 196.

Ninus, leader of the Assyrians
against the Bactrians, 8.

Nisi, 54.

Noduterensis, a goddess presiding
over the treading out of grain,
190, 193.

Nodutis, a god presiding over the
shooting corn, 190.

Novensiles, nine Sabine gods, or the
Muses, 176, 182 ; presiding over
renovation, 176 ; the nine gods
who can thunder, 177 ; foreign
deities received by the Romans,
177; dei tied mortals, 177.

Nomads, 14.

Numa, established forma of wor-
ship and sacrifice, 76, 335 ; un-
acquainted with incense, 335 ; ad-
vised by Egeria how to learn the
way to draw Jupiter to earth, 223;
overreached Jupiter by his readi
ness, 223, 226.

Numa PompOius, name of Apollo

not found in the rituals of, 143.
Numenius, 74.
Numicius, frequented by the in

dlrjetes, 27.
Nysius, Liber, 252.

OCRISIA, brought as a captive from

Corniculum, 241 ; mother of Ser-

vius, 242.
(Eta, the Phoanician Hercules burnec

on mount, 27, 208.
Olive, Minerva the discoverer o!

the, 172.
Olus, Capitol named from, 279.

Olympian Jupiter, 290.

Omens derived from points of spears,

137 ; from the entrails o£ victims,

139, 194; no longer observed in

public business, 137.
)mophagia, i.e. Bacchanalia, 242.
Onion, thunder - portents averted

with an, 224, 226.
Ops, sprung from Ccelus and Hecate,

141 ; mother of Jupiter and his

brothers, 27, 139, 141, 171, 202.
Orbona, guardian deity of bereaved

parents, 190.
Orcus, union of Proserpine with,

257.
Origin of things, Christ commanded

men not to inquire into, 129.
Ornytus, Pallas slain by, 208.
Orpheus, the Thracian bard, 242;

the Thracian soothsayer, 250.
Osiris, husband of Isis, torn limb

from limb, 27.
Dssilago, a deity giving firmness to

the bones of children, 190.
Ossipagina, a name given to Juno,

PALES, guardian of the flocks and
herds, 166 ; not a female, but a
male steward of Jupiter, 178 ; one
of the Penates, 178, 181.

Palladium, the, formed from the re-
mains of Pelops, 207.

Pallas, father of the fifth Minerva,
and slain by her, 197, 198.

Pallas, surname of Minerva, 198;
overcome and slain by Ornytus,
208.

Pamphilus, a magian and friend of
Cyrus, 43.

Panastius, a Stoic philosopher, 72.

Panchsean gums burned to the gods,
336.

Panda, origin of the name, 186.

Pansa, consulship of, 232.

Pantarces, a name inscribed on the
finger of the statue of Olympian
Jupiter, 287.

Pantica, i.e. Panda, 186.

Paphos, Cinyras king of, 278.

Parthians, Christianity attested by
mighty works amongst the, 76.

Patella, goddess of things to be
brought to light, 190.

Patellana, goddess of things already
brought to light, 190.

Patrimus, place in the ceremonies of
the boy called, 213.

Pausi, 21.

382

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

Peace deified, 185.

Peleus, father of Achilles, loved by
Thetis, 209.

Pellonia, a goddess who repels
enemies, 186, 187.

Peloponnese, Apis born in the, 28.

Pelops, 209 ; the Palladium formed
from the remains of, 207.

Penates, said to be Neptune and
Apollo, 178, 181 ; gods of the re-
cesses of heaven, 178; said to be
of four kinds, 178; said to be
Fortune, Ceres, the genius Jovi-
alis, and Pales, 178, 181 ; and by
the Etruscans to be the Consentes
and Complices, 178.

Perfica, goddess of filthy pleasures,
189.

Peripatetics, Aristotle the father
of the, 72.

Persians, the, overcome because of
the Christians, 14 ; Christianity
attested by mighty works among,
76; worshipped rivers, 283; skilled
in secret arts, 195.

Pertunda, a goddess presiding over
the marriage couch, 189.

Pessinuntic Dindymene, 217.

Pessinus, people of, worshipped a
flint for the mother of the gods,
283 ; Great Mother brought from,
361 ; Midas king of, 229.

Pestilence, sent to punish pollution
of the circus, 350 ; abated when
deities were brought from abroad,
351 ; put to flight by ^Esculapius,
356.

Peta, presiding over prayers, 190.

Peter's victory over Simon Magus, 77.

Phaethon, the sun the father of, 266;
loved by Ceres, 209.

Phalli displayed in honour of Bac-
chus, 252 ; given in the mysteries
of Venus, 242.

Phidias, sculptor of the image of
Olympian Jupiter, 286 ; carved on
it the name of a boy loved by him,
287.

Philopator, i.e. Ptolemy iv., 278.

Philosophers, pride of, 117; by their
disagreement show that nothing
can be known, 74.

Phoenician Hercules, 27.

Phoroneus, the first builder of
temples, 274.

Phorbas, Attis found and brought
up by, 229.

Phrygia, the rook Agdus in, 227 ;
mysteries celebrated in, 242.

Phrygian mother, the, i.e. Cybele,
143.

Phrygians, the, overcome with fear
at the sight of the Great Mother
and Acdestis, 230; Christianity
attested by mighty works among,
76 ; call their goats attagi, 229.

Phryne, native of Thespia, used as
model for the statues of Venus,
286.

Picus, son of Saturn, and father of
Faunus, 141 ; drugged and made
prisoner by Numa, 223 ; surnamed
Martius, 223.

Piety, altars and temples built to,
184, 185.

Pindar, the Boeotian, 206.

Pine, Attis self -mutilated under a,
230; borne to her cave by the
Great Mother, 231 ; carried into
the sanctuary of the Great Mother
on certain days, 239, 262; wreathed
with flowers, 230, 240; bound
with wool, 239.

Pipe, a (tibia), borne by Acdestis
when he burst in upon the Phry-
gians, 230.

Piso, consulship of, 142.

Plank, a, worshipped by the Samians
for Juno, 283.

Plafo, head of philosophers, 11 ; the
disciple of Socrates, 72 ; the di-
vine, has many thoughts worthy
of God, 103.

Plato's doctrine of reminiscence
criticised, 90; bodiless forms, i.e.
ideas, 72.

Plutarch of Chaeronea, 208.

Pluto, brother of Jupiter and Nep-
tune, 172; kiug of the shades,
248.

Plutonian realms, i.e. infernal re-
gions, 327.

Polias, Erichthonius buried in the
sanctuary of, 277.

Pollux, son of Tyndareus, distin-
guished as a boxer, 27 ; buried in
Sparta, 208.

Pomegranate tree, a, springs from
the severed members of Acdestis,
228.

Pomona, a name given to Juno, 171.

Pompilius, the revered, 161; sacri-
fices thoroughly cooked and con-
sumed in time of, 138.

Pontifex Maximus, 42, 216, 354.

Populonia, a name given to Juno,
171.

Portents, thunder, how averted, 223.

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

383

Porrtraua, gives safety to sailors,
166.

Potua, presiding over drinking, 168.

Praestana, named because Romulus
excelled all with the javelin, 186.

Praxiteles, in the Cnidian Venus,
copied the courtezan Gratina, 286.

Prayers for the dead, and for all
men, 218.

Priapus, the Hellespont! an god of
lust, 157 ; represented with im-
mense pudenda, 301.

Proserpine, daughter of Ceres and
Jupiter, 244; violated by her
father, 244 ; carried off by Pluto
from Sicily, 248, 27 ; called Libera,
244 ; named because plants rise
slowly, 173; lusted after by the
first Mercury, 196 ; loved Adonis,
209 ; allegorical explanation of the
rape of, 256, 257, 261 ; barren
heifers sacrificed to, 329, 328.

Prosumnus, a vile lover of Bacchus,
253 ; the god's compliance with
his request, 253.

Protagoras, doubts as to existence
of a deity, 25.

Prothce loved by Apollo, 208.

Psylli, sellers of charms against ser-
pents, 99.

Purification of the mother of the
gods, 342.

Puta, a goddess presiding over the
pruning of trees, 190.

Pygmalion, king of Cyprus, 297 ;
an image of Venus loved by, 297.

Pyriphlegethon, a river in Hades,
80.

Pyrrha, women formed from stones
cast by, 227.

Pythagoras of Samos, 72, 78 ; placed
the cause of things in numbers,
72 ; burned to death in a temple,
32.

Pythian god, the, identifiel with
the sun and Bacchus, 173 ; served
Laomedon, 207; soothsayers are
taught by, 166.

QUINDECEMVIRI, the, wore wreaths

of laurel, 216.
Quirinus, excelled all in throwing

the javelin, 186.
Quirinus Martins, Romulus torn in

pieces by the senators, called, 33.
Quirites, 187.

RACES, guilt contracted if the music
stopped at the, 213 ; in the games

of Jupiter, 352 ; seven rounds of
the course in, 352.

Regulus, cruel death of, 32 ; a huge
serpent killed by the army of, 359.

Religion, credibility of, not depend-
ent on antiquity, 140, 142; opinion
constitutes, not ceremony, 348.

Reminiscence, the Platonic doctrine
of, 86, 90.

Renovation, the Novensiles gods of,
177.

Rhodes, the fourth Sun born at,
196.

Right and left merely relative terms,
187, 188.

Rites of the mother of the gods,
239, 240 ; of Bona Dea, 241 ; of
Bacchus, Cyprian Venus, and the
Corybantes, 242 ; of Ceres in
Phrygia, 242, 243.

Rituals of Numa, Apollo's name not
found in, 143.

Rivers, worshipped in ancient times
by the Persians, 283.

Roman matrons, not allowed to drink
wine, 138 ; kissed to test their
sobriety, 138.

Romans, the race of Mars, the im-
perial people, 217 ; had changed
their customs and ceremonies,
137 ; Pellonia goddess only of,
187 ; worshipped a spear for Mars,
283.

Rome, age in time of Arnobius of
the city, 141 ; Christianity at-
tested by miracles in, 76, 77.

Romulus, founder of Rome, 1G1 ;
sacrifices consumed in time of,
138 ; and his brother, 186 ; a dei-
fied mortal, 177 ; torn in pieces
by the senators, 33 ; unacquainted
with incense, 335 ; called Quirinus
Martius, 33.

SABINE gods, the Novensiles, nine,
176.

Sabre, worshipped by the Scythians,
283.

Sacrifices, Christians offered no,
273 ; Varro's denial of any occa-
sion for, 308 ; cannot feed gods,
309 ; cannot give pleasure to the
gods, 310, 311 ; can neither pre-
vent their anger, 312 ; nor satisfy
their rage, 313 ; no reason can be
found for, 329; purity and clean-
liness required at, 323.

Sarklucees, attributing form to God,
158.

384

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

Salt-cellars, tables consecrated by
placing, 137.

Safety, temples and altars erected
to, 184.

Sais, the Egyptian, offspring of tbe
Nile, 196, 199; identified with the
second Minerva, 196.

Samians, the, worshipped a plank
for Juno, 283.

Samothracii Digiti, named Idaei
Dactyli, 179; said to be the Lares,
179, 181.

Sangarius, a king or river, father of
Nana, 228; attempted to starve
his daughter to death, 228 ; ex-
posed her child, 229.

Sard is, Hercules a slave at, 207.

Satirical poems punished by law,
216.

Saturn, son of Ccelus and Hecate,
141 ; overthrew his father, 210 ;
attempted to destroy his children,
210 ; was driven from power by
Jupiter, 206, 210 ; hid himself in
Latium, 206 ; was thrown into
chains for parricide, 206 ; father
by Ops of Jupiter, 139, 141, 171,
202; of the third Jupiter, 196;
mother of the gods married to,
172 ; founder of the Saturnian
state, 27 ; father of the third
Minerva, 196 ; when aged, taken
in adultery by his wife, 208 ;
tomb and remains of, in Sicily,
208 ; identified with Kronos, and
explained as chronos, 170; pro-
genitor of the dii magni, 171 ;
planter of the vine, 171 ; bearer
of the pruning-knife, 171, 284,
300 ; presides over sown crops,
192 ; before Hercules' visit to
Italy, human sacritices offered to,
138.

Saturnian king, the, i.e. Jupiter,
204.

Satyr, Jupiter assumed the form of,
209, 267.

Scauri, 54

Scythian king and Circe, the fifth
Sun the son of a, 196.

Scythians, irruptions of the, laid to
the charge of the Christians, S ;
sacrificed asses to Mars, 207.

Sebadia, 244.

Semele, mother of Liber by Jupiter,
140, 202, 173, 252, 267.

Senators, Romulus torn in pieces
by, 33 ; abuse of, punished by
law, 216.

Serapis, Apis in Egypt called, 28 ;
the Egyptian, 211 ; introduction
of the worship of, 142 ; temple of,
burned to ashes, 298.

Seres, the, 276; Christianity at-
tested by miracles among, 76.

Serpent, Jupiter assumed the form
of a, 209, 244.

Serpent-bites, charms against, 99.

Servius Tullus, birth of, 242.

Shrine of Juno at Argos, 298.

Shrines, the Christians built no, 273.

Sibyl, the, 51.

Sicily, tomb and .remains of Saturn
in, 208 ; Proserpine carried off
from, 248.

Sickle, borne by Saturn, 284.

Simon Magus, fiery car of, 77 ; over-
throw and death of, 77.

Sinister deities, presiding over the
left, 187, 188.

Sleep, what produces, 70.

Slumber, is life anything but, 70.

Sminthian mice. Apollo the destroyer
of, 173.

Socrates, condemnation of, spoken
of as the Trojan war, 262; not
made infamous by his condemna-
tion, 32; Plato the disciple of, 72.

Solecisms and barbarisms objected
to Christianity, 48.

Sophists, pretentious show of the,
49.

Soul, nature, origin, and condition
of the, taught by Christ, 30 ; in
an intermediate state, 80, 101,
98, 120; immortal, and holding
the fourth place in the universe,
91, 81 ; corporeal and mortal, 93 ;
may become immortal through
Christ, 100 ; death is the ruin of
the, 100 ; does not come into this
world divinely taught, 86, 81 ;
cast into rivers of fire, 80 ; should
flee from earth, according to
Plato, 78 ; not begotten by God,
112; man's, not formed from the
same pure mixture as the world's,
120; cast into fire by fiercely
cruel beings, 81.

Souls said to pass into cattle, 83.

Spain, 14 ; Hercules buried in, 27.

Sparta and Lacedsemon, Castor and
Pollux buried in, 208.

Spartanus, Mars identified with,
207.

Spear, a, worshipped by the Romans
for Mars, 283.

Stage, gods brought on, 216, 217.

1KDEX CF SUBJECTS.

883

States, genii of, 21.

Stentors, 145.

Sterope, loved by Apollo, 20S.

Stoic theory, of the world, 124; that

souls survived death for a little,

125.
Stone, the Arabians worshipped an

unhewn, 283.
Stones, after the deluge men sprung

from, 227 ; anointed with oil, and

worst ipped, 31.
Stone, a, sent from Phrygia as the

Great Mother, 3G2.
Stygian Jupiter, i.e. Pluto, 139.
Styx, a river in the infernal regions,

80, 253.
Sulla, the proscription of, spoken of

as the battle of Canuaj, 262.
Summanus, i.e. Pluto, 182, 261.
Sumptuary laws, not observed in

time of Arnobius, 137.
Supreme Jupiter, the, in opposition

to the Stygian, 139.
Sun, the, all things vivified by the

heat of, 5 ; said to be only a foot

in breadth, 130 ; identified with

Bacchus and Apollo, 173; and

with Attis, 2G5; five gods said

to be, 190 ; represented with rays

of light, 285 ; father of Phaethon,

266.
Swan, Jupiter changed into a, 205,

267.
Syria, plagued with locusts because

of the Christians, 14.

TAGES, the Etruscan, 139.
Tanaquil and the dii comerentes, 241.
Tarpeian rock, the, taken by Titus

Tatius, 186.
Tartarus, the darkness of, has no

terrors to the immortal, 96; visited

by Liber, 252.
Tellene perplexities, proverbial

phrase, 252.
Tellus, mother of the Muses, 175.

See also under Earth.
Telmessus, city in Asia Minor, 278.
Telmessus, the prophet buried under

Apollo's altar, 278.
Temples, in many cases tombs, 277,

278 ; destroyed with their images,

and plundered, 298 ; built to cats,

beetles, and heifers, 21 : built

that men might come near and

invoke the gods, 275 ; not raised

by the Christians, 273.
Thales, attributed all tilings to

water, 72.
ABKOB.

Theatres, the gods exposed to insult

and mockery in the, 217, 218.
Theban Hercules, the, 27, 204.
Themis, the oracle of, 227.
Theodoras of Cyrene, 211.
Thesmophoiia, origin of the, 247.
Thespia, Phryue a native of, 286.
Thespians, the, worshipped a branch

for Juno, 283.
Thessaly, home of the Myrmidons,

209.

Thestius' fifty daughters, and Her-
cules, 209.

Thetis, loved Peleus, 209.
Theutis, the Egyptian, founder of

astrology, 139.
Thieves, Laverua the goddess of,

168.

Thrace, Mars born in, 207.
Tnracian, the, bard, i.e. Orpheus,

242 ; soothsayer, son of Calliope,

250.
Thrasimene lake, Roman defeat at

the, 187.

Thunderer, the, i.e. Jupiter, 298.
Thunder, evil portented by, how

averted, 223, 224.
Thyle, remotest, 276.
Tiber, /Esculapius brought to the

island in the, 356.
Tinguitani, the, afflicted with

droughts because of the Chris-
tians, 14.
Titans, the, worshipped by the

Moors, 27 ; Liber torn in pieces

by, 32, 242.

Tithonus, loved by Aurora, 209.
Titus Tatius, the Capitoline taken

by, 186.
Tolus Vulccntanus, Capitol named

from, 278.

Transmigration of souls, 83.
Treason to speak evil of kings,

216.
Trebia, Novensiles worshipped at,

176.
Trebian gods, i.e. the Novensiles,

182.

Trebonius, cruelly put to death, 32.
Tree wreathed with flowers in

memory of Attis, 230.
Triptolemus, deified because he in-
vented the plough, 29 ; native of

Attica, first to yoke oxen, 248.
Tritonian maid, the, 165, 330.
Trojan wars, the condemnation of

Socrates spoken of as the, 262.
Trophonius, the second Mercury,

26, 196,

2B

33G

1XDEX OF SUBJECTS.

Tullius (M. Cicero), 262 ; the most
eloquent of the Ilomans, 154.

Tullius (Servius), king, half-raw
sacrifices offered under, 138.

Tutelary demons, the Lares, 180.

Tutunus, 189, 193.

Tyndareus, father of Castor and
Pollux, 27.

Tyndarian brothers, the, 139.

UNXIA, presiding over anointing,

168.
Upibilia, keeps from wandering, 190.

VARRO, distinguished by the di-
versity of his learning. 232; denies
that sacrifices are acceptable to
the gods, 307.

Velus, a magian, 43.

Venus, the Cytherean, sprung from
the sea-foam and the genitals of
Ccelus, 206 ; daughter of Dione,
27 ; lusted after Ancbises, 27,
209; a courtezan, 207, 211; dei-
fied by Cinyras, 207 ; mother of
the Desires, 168 ; of the imperial
people, 217 ; wounded by a mor-
tal, 207 ; represented on the stage
by lustful gestures, 217; in statues
and paintings nude, 285, 301; used
to denote lust, 268 ; allegorical
explanation of the binding of, 265,
266 ; named because love comes
to al), 173; four goddesses named,
137 ; Cinyras buried in the temple
of, 278; the courtezan Gratina the
model of the Cniclian, 286; Phryne
of more than one, 286; Pygmalion's
love for the Cyprian, 297; a youth's
love for the Cnidian, 297 ; mys-
teries of Cyprian, 242.

Venus Militaris, presiding over the
debauchery of camps, 189.

Vesta, the earth said to be, 172 ;
ever-burning fire of, 137.

Vestals, guarding the sacred fire,
216.

Vermilion, the images of the gods
smeared with, 282.

Verrii, 54.

Victa, presiding over eatin?, 108.

Victims, Christians slew no, 273.

Vicf-ory, Minerva the daughter of,

Vigils in the Thesmophoria, 247.

Vintage festival of rEsmlapius, 342.

Violets, sprung from blood of Attis,
230.

Virtue, altars and temples reared to,
184.

Virginalis, Fortuna, 138.

Vulcan, explained as fire, 173; lame,
206 ; wrought as a smith in Lem-
nos, 196, 206 ; son of the Nile,
196 ; loved by Ceres, 209 ; father
of the third Sun, 196 ; and of
Apollo, by the first Minerva, 196;
four gods named, 197 ; lord of
fire, 139, 166, Io4 ; represented
in workman's dress, 301 ; with
cap and hammer, 285.

Vulturnus, the father-in-law of
Janus, 170.

WHEAT, introduced into Attica by
Ceres, 212.

Will, free, in salvation, 133.

Wicked, souls of, pass into beasts, S3

World, the, uncreated and ever
lasting, 124 ; created, but ever
lasting, 124 ; created and perish
able, 124; theories of, 25, 73, 125,
destruction by fire of, 72.

Worship, true, in the heart, 212.

Winds, the, represented as blurting
trumpets, 282.

Within, the Penates said to be
those, 178.

Wine, in the rites of Bona Dea, 241;
sanctuary of Attis not entered
by those who had drunk, 229 ;
Pioman matrons not allowed to
drink, 138.

XERXES, the bridge and canal made
by, 9.

ZENO, the Stoic, 72; of Mynclus>,
278.

Zeuxippe, loved by Apollo, 208.

Zoroaster, Bactrians led against the
Assyrians by, 8 ; assigned by tra-
dition to different countries and
ages, 43.

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